Incontinence

[eagle18]

Hi everyone. Hope you are doing well today. Would anyone know if incontinence can be the result of an infection, rather than a spinal problem.

[Wise Young]

eagle,

incontinence is usually a combination of two problems. One is weakness of the sphincter. The other is bladder spasticity which increases the pressure and therefore causes the leakage. Ditropan (an anti-spasticity drug) helps reduce incontinence.

Wise.

[eagle18]

Originally Posted by Wise Young

eagle,

incontinence is usually a combination of two problems. One is weakness of the sphincter. The other is bladder spasticity which increases the pressure and therefore causes the leakage. Ditropan (an anti-spasticity drug) helps reduce incontinence.

Wise.

Dr. wise.

I am more confused than ever. Firstly am i correct in saying it cannot be due to infection ? and can it be a problem, which can be fixed by surgery to the lower back, even if spasticity is present ? I have yet to tolerate an anti- spasticity drug. For example. baclofen, nuerontin, trileptal, were all terrible failures. Please help. i will gladly furnish any info you require.

Thank You

[Wise Young]

Originally Posted by eagle18

Dr. wise.

I am more confused than ever. Firstly am i correct in saying it cannot be due to infection ? and can it be a problem, which can be fixed by surgery to the lower back, even if spasticity is present ? I have yet to tolerate an anti- spasticity drug. For example. baclofen, nuerontin, trileptal, were all terrible failures. Please help. i will gladly furnish any info you require.

Thank You

Eagle,

Bladder infection does aggravate incontinence because it irritates the bladder and increases bladder spasticity. For example, even in people without spinal cord injury, urinary tract infection causes "urgency" or the need to go to the bathroom. This results from bladder contractions.

The anti-spasticity drugs that you are referring to are muscle spasticity while the anti-spasticity drug that I am referring to for the bladder affects only the bladder. Ditropan is an anti-cholinergic drug. I don't know whether it will have any side-effects on you. If you don't usually have incontinence and it only occurs when you have infection, then the goal is to treat the infection and hope that the problem goes away and you don't have to take a bladder anti-spasticity drug.

Of the three drugs that you are referring to, only baclofen is an effective anti-spasticity drug. Neurotin is an anti-epileptic drug that happens to have some effects of neuropathic pain (the burning pain that you referred to earlier). Likewise, trileptal is also an anti-epileptic drug that was probably prescribed to you for your neuropathic pain.

Wise.

P.S. Would you mind if I consolidate all your questions into a single thread so that they are easier to track?

[paramoto]

Dr. Young, I take Detrol, 2 mg twice a day. I still have accidents when my volume gets to 500cc which may be a good thing, but sometimes it is very embarrassing. Should I try Ditropan, which is what most people take, or increase my Detrol to 5 or 6 mg?? Sorry for disrupting the thread.

[eagle18]

Of course I don't mind if you put all my questions into one thread. Anything that would help answer all of my questions would be of great help.
Thank you

[Buckanan]

I used to have accidents (bladder) occasionally but then I went to KKI and they did a urodynamics test and concluded that the accidents were caused by increase of pressure due to bladder spacticity. They have started me on ditropan and I have had no problems since I started taking it (about 2 1/2 weeks). I on a regular bases cath out 800 - 1400CC, is this unheard of?


Colin

[paramoto]

Originally Posted by Buckanan

I used to have accidents (bladder) occasionally but then I went to KKI and they did a urodynamics test and concluded that the accidents were caused by increase of pressure due to bladder spacticity. They have started me on ditropan and I have had no problems since I started taking it (about 2 1/2 weeks). I on a regular bases cath out 800 - 1400CC, is this unheard of?


Colin

Colin, I have heard of caths of over 1000 cc's, so it is not unheard of. Nonetheless it can cause real problems with your renal system. I think you should mention this to your doctor, perhaps cath more often when intaking high amounts of liquid, eventhough in my case my high output is very unpredictable. Sometimes I drink a lot and cath very little, then a few days later I drink very little and have an accident. My accidents occur mainly on weekends and holidays.