Prague, July 12 (CTK) – Czech experts have developed a unique method to help patients with urinary incontinence by teaching their brain to ignore false signals it receives from their hyperactive bladder, daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) wrote on Wednesday.
The breakthrough method, together with a special device it uses, will facilitate the treatment of incontinence, the experts from Charles University’s 2nd Medical Faculty say.
The device will be produced by the Tesla Medical company, which has gained 20 million crowns from small investors for this purpose, HN writes.
Up to 17 percent of Czechs suffer from the most widespread form of incontinence, which is a too sensitive or overactive urinal bladder, the paper writes.
The new device tackles the cases of uncontrolled leak of urine in the case of many patients, which means a long-lasting stress for them and their social exclusion or problems at workplace, the daily writes.
The condition of such patients tends to worsen in time, it writes, citing Tesla Medical head Lukas Doskocil.
Incontinence is caused by the body’s attempts to mislead the brain by reporting a full bladder to it “unrightfully,” Michal Rejchrt, chief urologist of the Prague-Motol University Hospital, is quoted as saying.
Doctors do not know why the body sends the false signals, and therefore they are unable to heal the disease.
The new device is an alternative to the currently used medicines and needle-stick therapy. It is connected with a tape fixed on the patient’s leg above the ankle, where the nerve linking the urinal bladder with the lumbar nerve plexus and the brain is situated.
The device’s slight electric impulses send an information to the brain that it should ignore the bladder’s false signals.
“We train the brain to achieve changes in its behaviour,” Tesla Medical head Lukas Doskocil is quoted as saying.
One therapeutic session lasts 30 minutes and needs to be repeated once a week for three months.
Tesla Medical wants to start producing the device in its plant in Pardubice, east Bohemia, as soon as its clinical tests are completed, which is expected in the autumn.
In the future, the firm plans to expand to Germany and the USA, the daily writes.
