Bladder Inhibition by Penile Electrical Stimulation

Abstract

Transcutaneous electrical stimulation was applied to the penis in 22 patients complaining of frequency, urgency and/or urge incontinence. Detrusor activity was suppressed with this stimulation, causing decreased bladder spasticity and/or increased cystometric capacity in 10 of 22 patients. Clinical success was noted in four patients with a portable stimulator.

A Microchannel Neuroprosthesis for Bladder Control After Spinal Cord Injury in Rat

“…These include low-frequency collision block of the dorsal roots (23) and pelvic afferents (46) as shown in animal models. Noninvasive penile nerve stimulation has worked particularly well at suppressing bladder contractions in patients with spinal cord injury (47,48), and the same benefit has been shown when SARS has been applied to extradural mixed or intradural posterior sacral roots (49). The hypothesized mechanism for this particular "neuromodulation" is afferent-directed inhibition of detrusor muscle motor neurons (50).…”

The acute effects of continuous and conditional neuromodulation on the bladder in spinal cord injury

“…The e ect is seen in normal subjects, 12 spinally injured patients 5,7 ± 11 and those with idiopathic bladder instability. 6,13,14 Such stimulation can be termed neuromodulation, in which`activity in one neural pathway modulates the pre-existing activity in another through synaptic interaction'. 15 Neuromodulation in spinally injured patients has the potential to suppress the detrusor hyperre¯exia that is the result of lesions of the spinal cord above the cauda equina, and if untreated may contribute to incontinence, vesicoureteric re¯ux and renal failure.…”

The overactive bladder: current aetiological concepts

“…Free radicals and lipid peroxidases are generated through a cascade of cellular that are able to suppress bladder contractions include stimulation of the purely sensory dorsal nerve of the mechanisms, leading to an alteration in membrane permeability. The final result is hyperexcitability of nerve penis [19], stimulation of lower limb aCerents in the posterior tibial nerve [20] and activation of the symand muscle cell membranes, resulting in an overactive bladder. pathetic nervous system (Edvardsen's reflex) suppressing bladder activity via b-adrenergic receptors, although the latter is an equivocal mechanism in humans [21].…”