Overactive Bladder Treatments
The first line of defense for overactive bladder is typically noninvasive approaches such as bladder training and pelvic floor muscle exercises. These techniques strengthen the muscles of the pelvic floor to help patients regulate their bowel and bladder movements. If the patient's overactive bladder requires more extensive treatment, then medication will be considered to help manage the condition.
Our expert physicians may suggest the following anticholinergic drugs: Tolterodine (Detrol), Oxybutynin (Ditropan XL), Trospium (Sanctura), Solifenacin (Vesicare), Darifenacin (Enablex), and Mirabegron (Myrbetriq). These medications help keep the bladder relaxed to avoid muscle spasms that can cause urinary incontinence. In addition to anticholinergic drugs, antidepressant drugs like imipramine and duloxetine have been known to treat overactive bladder. Another class of medication that may be needed is called a beta-3 selective adrenergic agonist (Myrbetriq). This medication may cause relaxation of bladder muscles.
If these medications are not enough to effectively treat overactive bladder, a physician may recommend Botox injections. This minimally invasive procedure calms nerves and muscles around the bladder, and it's usually performed in-office. During the procedure, the physician injects Botox into the bladder muscle and asks the patient wait in their office for at least 30 minutes. This step ensures the patient tolerates the Botox injections well. Afterward, the patient may return home and resume normal daily activities. Botox can last up to eight months, so if the injection was successful, patients may need to return to Affiliated Urologists for additional treatments.
In addition to Botox injections, Affiliated Urologists also offers percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation-PTNS (Urgent PC) and sacral nerve stimulation (InterStim). Urgent PC stimulates the nerves externally while InterStim stimulates the nerves internally from a surgically implanted device. The physicians at Affiliated Urologists are expertly trained in minimally invasive surgery to implant InterStim devices. Moreover, our team can also perform surgical procedures to increase the bladder’s capacity or remove the bladder completely if more conservative measures did not help the patient. We encourage patients to visit our clinic to receive a thorough evaluation for recommended treatment options.
