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Urinary incontinence - Urge Incontinence

Description

An in-depth report on the causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of urinary incontinence.

Alternative Names

Incontinence

Urge Incontinence:

The main symptom of urge incontinence (also called hyperactive, irritable, or overactive bladder) is the need to urinate frequently. Patients may go to the bathroom more than 8 times over 24 hours, including two or more times a night, and have subsequent leakage. However, most people with overactive bladder experience only urgency and frequency. In some cases, urge incontinence occurs only at night. This is called nocturnal enuresis.

All cases of urge incontinence involve an overactive bladder. This occurs when the detrusor muscle, which surrounds the bladder, contracts inappropriately during the filling stage. When this occurs, the urge to urinate cannot be voluntarily suppressed, even temporarily. There is usually one of two types:

Idiopathic Detrusor Overactivity (formerly called Detrusor Instability). In this type, the nerves serving the bladder have signaled the brain appropriately that the bladder is full, but the detrusor muscles are unable to be suppressed.
Neurogenic Detrusor Overactivity (formerly called Detrusor Hyperreflexia). With this type, a known neurologic problem impairs the signaling systems between the bladder and the central nervous system, and the brain is unable to inhibit the detrusor muscles controlling urination.

Often, the cause of detrusor instability and bladder hyperactivity is unknown. Some conditions that can produce the disorders leading to urge incontinence include the following:

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Detrusor instability occurs in about 75% of men with BPH and causes frequency, urgency, and urination during the night (although incontinence itself occurs only in very severe cases). Urge incontinence only at night can be a sign of severe obstruction in the urinary tract.

Benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) is a non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate gland, commonly found in men over the age of 50.

Prostate surgical procedures. Either prostatectomy for prostate cancer or transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) for BPH can cause detrusor instability. As with stress incontinence, prostatectomy poses a much higher rate than with TURP, which is very low.
Hysterectomy. Complications of this operation, which removes the uterus, are associated with up to double the risk for eventually needing surgery for incontinence.

Hysterectomy
Click the icon to see an image about hysterectomy.

Damage to the central nervous system. Certain neurologic disorders or injuries can disrupt the passage of nerve messages between the urinary tract and central nervous system. These neurological conditions include stroke, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord or disk injury, and Parkinson's disease.
Infections.
The aging process.
Emotional disorders. Anxiety is associated with urge incontinence.
Medications, including some sleeping pills.
Genetic factors may play a role in some cases.

Resources

www.nafc.org -- National Association for Continence
www.simonfoundation.org -- The Simon Foundation for Continence
www.niddk.nih.gov -- National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information
www.acog.org -- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
www.urologyhealthy.org -- Urology Health from the American Urological Association

References

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Albo ME, Richter HE, Brubaker L, et al. Burch colposuspension versus fascial sling to reduce urinary stress incontinence. N Engl J Med. 2007 May 24;356(21):2143-2155. Epub 2007 May 21.

Burgio KL, Kraus SR, Menefee S, Borello-France D, Corton M, Johnson HW, et al. Behavioral therapy to enable women with urge incontinence to discontinue drug treatment: a randomized trial. Ann Intern Med. 2008 Aug 5;149(3):161-9.

Daneshgari F, Kong W, Swartz M. Complications of mid urethral slings: important outcomes for future clinical trials. J Urol. 2008 Nov;180(5):1890-7. Epub 2008 Sep 17.

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Kuo HC. Comparison of effectiveness of detrusor, suburothelial and bladder base injections of botulinum toxin a for idiopathic detrusor overactivity. J Urol. 2007 Oct;178(4 Pt 1):1359-63. Epub 2007 Aug 16.

Landefeld CS, Bowers BJ, Feld AD, Hartmann KE, Hoffman E, Ingber MJ, et al. National Institutes of Health state-of-the-science conference statement: prevention of fecal and urinary incontinence in adults. Ann Intern Med. 2008 Mar 18;148(6):449-58. Epub 2008 Feb 11.

Lapitan MC, Cody JD, Grant A. Open retropubic colposuspension for urinary incontinence in women. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009 Apr 15;(2):CD002912.

Litwin MS, Saigal CS, editors. Urologic Diseases in America. US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2007; NIH Publication No. 07–5512

MacDonald R, Fink HA, Huckabay C, Monga M, Wilt TJ. Pelvic floor muscle training to improve urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy: a systematic review of effectiveness. BJU Int. 2007 Jul;100(1):76-81. Epub 2007 Apr 13.

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Moore KN, Fader M, Getliffe K. Long-term bladder management by intermittent catheterisation in adults and children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007 Oct 17;(4):CD006008.

Nygaard I, Barber MD, Burgio KL, Kenton K, Meikle S, Schaffer J, et al. Prevalence of symptomatic pelvic floor disorders in US women. JAMA. 2008 Sep 17;300(11):1311-6.

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van Kerrebroeck PE, van Voskuilen AC, Heesakkers JP, Lycklama á Nijholt AA, Siegel S, Jonas U, et al. Results of sacral neuromodulation therapy for urinary voiding dysfunction: outcomes of a prospective, worldwide clinical study. J Urol. 2007 Nov;178(5):2029-34. Epub 2007 Sep 17.

Reviewed last on: 8/4/2009
Harvey Simon, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

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