Do you feel the need to urinate urgently and frequently? It could be an overactive bladder – breaking latest news

If you need to urinate continuously, even at night, maybe with an urgency such as to risk involuntary loss of urine, you could be part of the large group of people suffering from overactive bladder. It is calculated that this condition it affects about 10-15 per cent of adults, reaching peaks of 40 per cent after the age of 40-45. Many, out of fear or modesty, live with these disorders without saying a word to anyone, often with heavy repercussions on the quality of life (here the Corriere Salute Forum).

What do you mean by overactive bladder?

It is a condition that involves a significant increase in the frequency of daily and / or nighttime urinationwith characteristics of urgency, which can sometimes lead to an involuntary loss of urine (urge incontinence). Luigi Da Pozzo, Professor of Urology at the University of Milano Bicocca and Director of Urology at the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo -. Colloquially when it comes to overactive bladder it refers to ailments reported by the woman. However, these same symptoms are also common in males (if not more, after a certain age) because they are secondary to bladder obstruction caused by widespread prostatic hypertrophy. In men, however, symptoms of bladder filling similar to those in women may be present also disorders of bladder emptyingin particular slowed and intermittent urinary flow.

What is it due to?

The normal functioning of the bladder requires coordination of musculoskeletal, neurological and psychological factors which allow it to be filled and emptied in the most appropriate times and places. This system under the control of “Nerve centers” located in the brain and spinal cord. In patients with overactive bladder, in fact, control over contraction of the detrusor muscle that makes up the bladder wall is lost. In practice, this muscle contracts involuntarily and causes an urgent urge to urinate. One is often associated with us bladder hypersensitivity to distensionwhich involves an early sensation of intense urge to urinate, even in the absence of a target filling of the bladder.

How can it be cured?

To counteract the overactive bladder you can start from simple behavioral advice to drug or surgical therapies. Useful measures include the balanced distribution of fluid intake during the day, weight loss and reduction of substance intake which can adversely affect the condition, such as caffeine, theine, cigarette smoking and alcoholic beverages. There may be associated with, especially successfully in women, Kegel exercisesable to strengthen the pelvic-perineal plane with a positive effect on the capacity of continence.

If this approach is not enough you can opt for one pharmacological therapy, different for women and men. Medicines are used in women anticholinergics
(oxybutynin, tolterodine, solifenacin, fesoterodine) up to the most modern drug muscarinic agonist (mirabregon), generally used in cases of intolerance or contraindication to the intake of the former. In cases refractory to these treatments, it is possible to switch toi
nstillation of anesthetic drugs, muscle relaxants or hyaluronic acid inside the bladder, while the injection of botulinum toxin into the bladder wall is rarely used. Finally in very well selected cases it can be considered implantation of medullary neurostimulators to control symptoms.