Overactive bladder syndrome negatively affects the daily life of many people. First-line conservative treatments, such as antimuscarinics, do not always lead to sufficient improvement of the complaints and/or are often associated with disabling adverse effects leading to treatment failure. Electrical stimulation of the sacral nerves has emerged as an alternative and attractive treatment for ref...

BACKGROUND Sacral nerve stimulation is a recent development in the treatment of faecal incontinence. This paper reports the experiences of a single center on the use of this technique since its first application. PATIENTS AND METHOD Based on the functional results of a temporary test stimulation phase, 16 patients underwent operative implantation of a permanent neurostimulation device. Due to...

BACKGROUND Electrical stimulation is commonly recommended to treat urinary incontinence in women. It includes several techniques that can be used to improve stress, urge, and mixed symptoms. However, the magnitude of the alleged benefits is not completely established. OBJECTIVES To determine the effects of electrical stimulation in women with symptoms or urodynamic diagnoses of stress, urge, ...

BACKGROUND Sacral neuromodulation operations have usually been performed based on 2D fluoro images. However, sacral nerve stimulation lead implantation may be challenging when the normal anatomy is confused by obesity or congenital anomalies. Thus the surgical navigation and intraoperative imaging methods could be helpful as those same methods have proven to be feasible methods for guiding othe...

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the most complex and devastating medical conditions. Its worldwide incidence ranges from 11 to 112 per 100,000 Population (Blumer & Quine, 1995; DeVivo, 1997). SCI leads to different degrees of dysfunction of the lower urinary tract due to a large variety of possible lesions. Immediately after SCI, flaccid paralysis sets in, followed by the absence of reflexes...

Fecal incontinence is one of the most emotionally devastating of all nonfatal conditions. Many patients do not respond satisfactorily to conservative measures, and there is a need for new and effective strategies when medical therapy fails. The development of sacral nerve stimulation and other forms of neuromodulation and the injection of biologically compatible substances into the anal sphinct...