Ralph A. Highshaw, M.D.

1) What is urology?

Urology (not neurology) is the study of medicine that deals with handling illnesses related to the kidneys, bladder, prostate (in men), urethra (voiding tube) and ureters (the tubes that drain the kidney into the bladder). Urology deals with male and female issues in these areas mentioned above.

2) What is a bladder spasm?

Bladder spasms are contractions of the bladder that can result in urgency (inability to hold urine), frequency and pain felt after voiding in the bladder or abdomen, or sometimes at the tip of the penis or near the rectum.

3) What is OAB?

Stands for overactive bladder. This results from bladder spasms, which can be caused from caffeine (tea or coffee), acidic foods, or spicy foods. Many times this can be controlled with dietary changes.

4) What is Interstitial cystitis?

This is a diagnosis of exclusion. This means that after every other cause of the persons symptoms are excluded, such as having a recurrent urinary tract infection, a diagnosis of interstitial cystitis is given.

There are no physical signs of interstitial cystitis but there are some associated bladder findings that may be present.

Symptoms include lower abdominal or peri-rectal pain, frequency, urgency, and burning on urination. Sometimes a person also experiences urethral pain, and pain with intercourse or directly after. Interstitial cystitis is also known as painful bladder syndrome. There are many theories as to the cause of this disorder.

One common theory is that the lining of the bladder is decreased or faulty and that the bladder is no longer able to tolerate acidic urine in it. Many of the other theories involves autoimmune processes (protecting cells of the body are fighting the body, in this case your bladder). I have found that many patient have a cross-over of symptoms and generally fall-out as having interstitial cystitis. They often have symptoms related to overactive bladder.

In either case many are cured with diet alone.

There are some effective medicines that are helpful as well. Although some urologists are prescribing anti-depressants to treat this illness, I have not. There are many other side-effects from anti-depressants that would complicate the healing process in my opinion. Besides a definitive, scientific rationale of how anti-depressants work to heal a person with interstitial cystitis has not been given.

5) Why does my bladder leak around the foley catheter?

A foley catheter is placed in many cases for a person who is undergoing surgery or has an inability to void (to urinate). The catheter has a balloon at the end of it which is inflated once the catheter is in place in the bladder. The balloon is then inflated and the catheter is kept in place this way.

Unfortunately the balloon portion of the catheter sits in a portion of the bladder that stimulates it to contract and squeeze out the urine. This can be handled in the case of long-term catheter use with medicines called anti-cholinergics which will decrease these bladder spasms.

Tags: bladder spasm, foley catheter, Interstitial cystitis, oab, overactive bladder, urology

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