did you know that you can use botox in your bladder well actually you can I'm
Dr. Rena Malik, urologist and pelvic surgeon and today we're going to talk
all about how you can use Botox for overactive bladder if you're new here and you like this
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so it's true we inject botox for patients who struggle with urinary urgency the sensation
that you have to go to the bathroom but you can't delay urinary frequency meaning go to
the bathroom more than eight times a day or having accidents related to urgency gotta go
gotta go and can't make it or waking up at night more than once also used for patients
who have what we call neurogenic bladder this is often patients who have spinal cord injuries
multiple sclerosis parkinson's strokes diabetes other things that can affect
the contractions of the bladder so that they are too strong or if their bladder becomes
more stiff over time and can't stretch well and that increase in pressure can create problems for
your kidneys and this is because the bladder is essentially connected to the kidney by two tubes
called the ureters and typically a bladder is like a balloon it fills and stretches super easily but
when patients have nerve injuries to their bladder that balloon or it the wall of the butter becomes
very stiff when you fill the bladder instead of it stretching easily it becomes a high pressure
situation and so the urine from the bladder either needs to leak out or it will go backwards up to
the kidneys and over time this can affect the function of the kidneys which is a real
problem and so for those patients botox can be really important and it works essentially
just like it does for wrinkles on the face it paralyzes the bladder muscles so you have less
strong contractions of the bladder muscle and those are the contractions that make you feel
the urge to urinate how effective is it well about eighty percent of people who get botox
injections have relief of their symptoms whether it's having less accidents going less often to
the bathroom having less strong urges to go to the bathroom or waking up less at night
you show up to the office and then you get undressed from the waist down afterwards
we'll have you put your legs up into stirrups and we'll insert some numbing jelly into the urethra
and some numbing medication into the bladder that will sit there for somewhere between 10 and
20 minutes before we do the actual injection so that the numbing medication has some time to work
after which we go in with a cystoscope or a camera that looks in the bladder that's connected to a
specialized needle which is what we use to inject the botox generally people get somewhere between
10 and 30 injections of botox into the wall of the bladder and spread out over the entire wall of the
bladder usually it feels like small bee stings but some people do have more pain with injections
but i would say that 90 of people can do it in the office without a problem this part takes about 10
minutes after it's done you'll want to hang out in the office for about 30 minutes when we make
sure that you can urinate after the botox has been injected and that you don't have any issues
afterwards you might have some discomfort when you urinate especially for the first few times
you can also have blood in the urine or light pink tinge to your urine and that's completely normal
unexpected if that pain or discomfort continues after you get those injections for more than a day
or so you want to talk to your doctor about maybe getting treatment for a urinary tract infection
also your doctor will make sure that you can urinate but if you start noticing that
you're having any difficulty urinating after the procedure call your doctor as well and the reason
is those are the two most common complications associated with botox one is getting urinary
tract infections and two is not being able to empty your bladder well this happens in about
five percent so five out of a hundred people who get botox injections will have difficulty emptying
their bladder and they may need to catheterize themselves afterwards lastly this procedure only
lasts for about six to nine months before you have to get botox injected again because it does wear
off pros is that it works and pretty quickly it works in about three to seven days after
getting the injection some people it takes up to two weeks but i would say the large majority
of patients see improvement pretty quickly and lastly it's minimally invasive you don't need
anesthesia you don't need a ride you don't need to go through pre-operative paperwork or anything
like that to get this procedure done cons for this procedure are that you do need to have repeat
procedures so maybe up to twice a year you'll be coming to the office to get botox injections
and second is that you may have a small chance of not being able to urinate in which case you need
to feel comfortable learning how to catheterize your bladder if this is something you want to
learn about comment below and let me know so i can make a video on how you catheterize yourself
lastly if you are not willing to catheterize yourself or you think you might have a uti
make sure you tell your doctor because you shouldn't get botox then i hope this was helpful
make sure you check out my overactive bladder playlist where i go through other options that
you can do at home to help your overactive bladder as well as other treatment options
as always i'm going to take care of yourself because you're worth it