Injection Therapy For Incontinence

Injection Therapy is a technique employed to treat many Urinary Incontinence issues such as OAB and male and female SUI. The treatment includes the nonsurgical injection of “bulking” material into the tissues around the urethra. The idea behind injection therapy is to provide closure of the sphincter without obstructing it which in turn increases the resistance to the outflow of urine.

Attempts to treat urinary incontinence with injection therapy have been considered for decades with a variety of materials. In most cases, injections are performed under local anesthesia, which allows the procedure to be performed in a hospital outpatient setting or in the physician’s office. After injection, most patients urinate with little difficulty, though urine retention is possible.

Although collagen, a natural material produced by the body, has been safely used as a bulking agent since 1993, manufacturing was discontinued in 2011 for economic reasons, and is no longer available in the United States. There are other products on the market that use synthetic materials designed to be non-migratory, non-absorbable, and biocompatible. Both Boston Scientific (Coaptite) and Uroplasty (Macroplastique) offer products for this use.

The FDA has cleared the use of bulking agents for SUI due to intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD) only.

Multiple research studies thus far have shown that in carefully selected patients up to 80% of women become dry or improved after three treatment sessions. This is not a permanent solution and repeated injections are necessary because the body absorbs the fluid over time.