The anti-wrinkle injection Botox, made of the botulinum toxin, appears to be a safe and effective treatment in women with symptoms of overactive bladder that is unresponsive to other approaches, according to a small study by researchers in Scotland.
Botox has been used successful in patients with difficulty controlling their bladders due to a spinal cord injury, but few studies have examined this approach in people with overactive bladder for which the cause is not known.
Therefore, Dr. Govindaraj M. Rajkumar and colleagues at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow prospectively studied 15 women who were given a single injection of Botox into the bladder muscle.
Immediately after treatment all but one woman noted an improvement in the classic and bothersome symptoms of urgency and frequency. The volume at first urge to void increased significantly in 13 women and the maximum bladder capacity increased in 10.
The effects of a single injection of Botox seem to last for between 20 and 24 weeks.
In 13 patients, symptoms returned to baseline at a mean of 24 weeks after treatment (range 10 to 52 weeks), the researchers report.
The researchers also note that incontinence episodes appeared to return to baseline levels much earlier than did those involving frequency.
Nevertheless, the team concludes that the treatment is safe, clinically effective and is "a viable alternative when conventional therapies have failed to produce symptomatic improvement."
