Japan – Researchers are using injections of belly fat to treat incontinence in men following prostate surgery.
Early research suggests the treatment – using stem cells extracted from abdominal fat – reduced leakage by up to 60 percent, with results being seen within days of the injections.
The scientists say the therapy may also work for female incontinence.
Prostate surgery carries the risk of damaging nerves and muscles surrounding the gland, leading to complications such as impotence and incontinence.
Nearly one in five men is thought to suffer mild long-term leakage following the removal of their prostate, while one in 20 suffers more serious problems.
Stress incontinence is the most common type after surgery.
Sufferers leak urine when they cough, laugh, sneeze or exercise, often because of problems with the muscular valve – the bladder sphincter – that keeps urine in the bladder.
Treatments for incontinence range from wearing a pad and doing pelvic muscle exercises, to “slings” – pieces of mesh that are surgically implanted under the urethra to take pressure off the valve.
In a new treatment – on trial at the Hospital Universitario La Paz in Spain with 10 patients – stem cells are being used to regenerate tissue damaged in surgery.
Stem cells have the potential to develop into various cell types, and can also work as an internal repair system to replenish and replace other cells.
The treatment involves taking fat from the abdomen using liposuction, extracting stem cells from that fat and then injecting them into the patient.
Fat tissue, especially in the abdominal region, has higher concentrations of stem cells compared with other sites. Results from a pilot study show that the stem cell treatment can be highly effective.
In the study at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, 250ml of fat tissue was taken from the abdomen by liposuction. The stem cells were then extracted and injected into the urethral sphincter.
A total of 11 patients with stress incontinence were treated and followed up for more than one year.
In most cases, the symptoms improved within a week after their injection.
Professor Raj Persad, urology consultant at the Bristol Urological Institute, said: “This treatment looks promising. We are at the dawn of a new era in the treatment of many conditions previously thought too difficult or impossible to treat.”
Daily Mail