New study going on with Botox for IC

I get the quarterly magazine called "ICA Update". This one is about Botox for the bladder and/or bladder muscles. I am going to the Kirkland Clinic in September (yes, that was their first opening). I really hope that the doctor I see has experimented with this because I want to try it for my bladder and bladder muscles. It sounds very promising. Here is an excerpt from the magazine:

Focusing on the Pelvic Floor

information is from Medline Plus

Putting a patient in retention changed Dr. Whitmore's mind about injecting botulinum toxin into the bladder. "I absolutely got away from it until we understand what its role in IC is," she told ICA Update.

What Dr. Whitmore does instead is to inject onabotulinumtoxinA into pelvic floor trigger points. She pointed out that 80 percent of IC patients have high-tone pelvic floor muscle dysfunction, which contributes to their pain.

Smith discovered that was true, saying she hadn't realized that a lot of her pain was coming from her pelvic floor until she got onabotulinumtoxinA injections into her pelvic floor, too. "It was kind of like a cycle," she realized. "One spasms, the other spasms."

Only a few studies of the technique have been published, but Dr. Whitmore tried injections into the pelvic floor and was so pleased with the results that she has now used the technique for more than 2oo patients.

She injects no more than 60 U of onabotulinytoxinA into each trigger point. The total quantity depends on the number and location of the trigger points, but she uses no more than 300 U. She makes sure patients are comfortable by injecting anesthetic into the trigger points or doing a pudendal nerve block before she proceeds. "Botox by itself, even when you inject it in the face, can cause some pain, so that's very important," Dr. Whitmore said. "When we do it that way, the patients have no pain."

End

This is not the end of the actual article. You can sign up for the ICA Update with a donation to the non-profit organization at www.ichelp.org.

Ok, I hope that the article was interesting to you because I thought it was. Well off I go to the rest of my Memorial Day weekend (remembering those that we lost in battle over the years). Bless them and their families for their sacrifice. XXOO, Kristi