The problem of urinary incontinence
The problem of urinary incontinence is the involuntary leakage of urine.
The muscles and tissue most often become weaker, owing to age, pregnancy, vaginal delivery,obesity, diabetes, hormonal therapy hysterectomy, physical activity,smoking, diet,other health problems or family history .
In the Atlas general hospital patients can have the following examinations done: urological examination, ultrasound, cystoscopy with stress test and establishing diagnosis and treatment.
There are several types of incontinence:
-Stress incontinence-leaking of urine during physical activities such as lifting weight,physical exercise and laughing, sneezing and coughing.
-Urge incontinence-the sudden and intensive urge to urinate although you may have urinated a while before-inability to control the urge to urinate long enough to reach the toilet
- Mixed incontinence-a combination of stress and urge incontinence
- Overflow incontinence-the bladder can not empty completely causing small amounts of urinary leakage
- Functional incontinence- the person knows there is a need to urinate but can not make it to the bathroom in time due to a mobility problem.
- Symptoms of urinary incontinence:
- sporadic urine leakage, from very weak (few drops) or medium (wet underwear) to serious (wet clothes).
- urine leakage while coughing, sneezing, laughing, bending, lifting weight and/or physical activity
- urine leakage when changing the position-from lying to sitting or standing
- frequent and sudden urge to go to the toilet and inability to reach it on time
- waking during night to go to the toilet
- constant urine leakage
The reasons why women do not seek medical help for incontinence include the following:
- They believe that their symptoms are normal part of ageing process.
- They do not know that incontinence can be treated.
- They are embarrassed to talk about it.
How is the procedure carried out?
More and more women today turn to minimally invasive treatments.These procedures may include less pain and a shorter recovery period.
Procedure of implanting urethral sling- a sling is placed around the urethra to lift it back into a normal position and to exert pressure on the urethra to aid urine retention.The sling is attached to abdominal wall.
This procedure is minimally invasive and it can be performed as one-day surgery and recovery period is very short.
In most cases,women can get back to their light daily activities,including going back to work within a couple of days and since the incisions are very small the healing process is very short.
