What Are the Reasons For Urinary Incontinence?
More commonly seen in females.
- Stress incontinence, coughing, sneezing, laughter, and sudden movements may cause urinary incontinence by increasing abdominal pressure. Pregnancy, vaginal delivery, and menopause are the basic etiological factors.
- Urge incontinence, unintentional and sudden spasms create sudden need for urinate resulting in urinary incontinence. Urinary tract infections, bladder and intestine problems, urinary tract sand and stones, diseases like Parkinson, Alzheimer, multiple sclerosis (MS) may be related with Urge incontinence.
- Overactive bladder syndrome is the state of suffering from multiple (more than 8 times a day) urinary incontinence during the day and night. In some cases, faecal incontinence is also present. This syndrome is among the 10 chronic diseases that severely disturb life quality. Neurogenic diseases, diabetes, urinary tract infections, disc hernia surgery, Parkinson disease, menopause, tumours of bladder, bladder diseases, various drugs, old age, obesity, extensive alcohol consumption are among the aetiological factors of this syndrome.
What Are the Signs of Urinary Incontinence?
The major sign of urinary incontinence is the unintentional dripping or flow of urea.
- Frequent need to urinate,
- Having pain during urination,
- Difficulty in urination,
- Frequent urinary tract infections are also among the signs of urinary incontinence.
What is Faecal Incontinence? What are the Causes?
Faecal incontinence is defined as the unintentional farting or defecating. Faecal incontinence can be idiopathic (the reason cannot be identified), traumatic (vaginal delivery, pelvis laceration, pelvis injuries etc.), or neurological diseases, spinal cord and nervous injuries, paralysis may be the causative factor. Some patients do not notice at all the faecal incontinence and some notice but cannot control.
How are Urinary and Faecal Incontinence Treated?
There is a wide spectrum of treatment alternatives for urinary and faecal incontinence. Pelvic exercise (Kegel exercise), drugs, laser, botox, and surgery are among the treatment alternatives.
Sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) is one of the most effective treatment methods for urinary incontinence and overactive bladder syndrome.
The reason of faecal incontinence should be identified first and then the appropriate treatment is planned. In case of muscle laceration, surgical intervention is required.
In cases of unintentional farting-defecating, sacral nerve stimulation is very effective to solve the problem when the other treatment methods do not provide the cure.