New treatment for stress incontinence

Austrian surgeons have come up with a new treatmnet for stress incontinence which involves injecting cells into the wall of the urethra.

Some women with stress incontinence may have a new treatment available. Stress incontinence is leakage when you laugh, cough or take exercise and can seriously affect a woman’s quality of life.

Pelvic floor exercises help many women and for those who aren’t there’s surgery or varying kinds. One of the commonest operations is threading tape around the urethra - that’s the exit tube from the bladder to help support it. It has pretty good results but a proportion of women still need something else and in them it’s often the muscle around the urethra which isn’t doing its job.

A group of Austrian surgeons has found that injecting cells into the urethral wall which grow into muscle as well as cells which grow into supporting tissue has dramatically better results than control injections with collagen.

It’s a lengthy and elaborate process involving taking the cells from the woman’s arm and growing them in the lab over several weeks then injecting them back into the urethra. A small randomized trial has shown significant benefits in terms of improved dryness.

What’s needed now is a larger trial in other places to see whether the concept can work as well and is affordable in the real world.