Molecular Assessment of Neuroregenerative Response in the Pudendal Nerve: A Useful Tool in Regenerative Urology.

Aims: Assessing pudendal nerve neuroregenerative response provides valuable insight into injuries and regenerative treatments related to urinary incontinence. This project developed and validated a cost-effective, expedient, and adoptable method of assessing pudendal nerve neuroregenerative response.

Methods: Sprague Dawley rats underwent unilateral pudendal nerve crush prior to spinal cord harvest and laser microdissection for separate collection of the injured and uninjured Onuf's nuclei (pudendal motor neuron cell bodies).

Rat mesenchymal stem cell secretome promotes elastogenesis and facilitates recovery from simulated childbirth injury.

Vaginal delivery is a risk factor for stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) home to injured organs and can facilitate repair. The goal of this study was to determine if MSCs home to pelvic organs after simulated childbirth injury and facilitate recovery from SUI via paracrine factors.

Effects of acute selective pudendal nerve electrical stimulation after simulated childbirth injury.

During childbirth, a combinatorial injury occurs and can result in stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Simulated childbirth injury, consisting of vaginal distension (VD) and pudendal nerve crush (PNC), results in slowed recovery of continence, as well as decreased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a regenerative cytokine. Electrical stimulation has been shown to upregulate BDNF in motor neurons and facilitate axon regrowth through the increase of β(II)-tubulin expression after injury.

Pudendal nerve stretch reduces external urethral sphincter activity in rats.

Purpose: Most animal models of stress urinary incontinence simulate maternal injuries of childbirth since delivery is a major risk factor but they do not reproduce the nerve stretch known to occur during human childbirth. We hypothesized that pudendal nerve stretch produces reversible dysfunction of the external urethral sphincter.

Materials And Methods: Female virgin Sprague-Dawley® rats were anesthetized with urethane.

Neurotrophin therapy improves recovery of the neuromuscular continence mechanism following simulated birth injury in rats.

Aims: Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) affects women both acutely and chronically after vaginal delivery. Current SUI treatments assume the neuromuscular continence mechanism, comprised of the pudendal nerve (PN) and external urethral sphincter (EUS), is either intact or irreparable. This study investigated the ability of neurotrophin therapy to facilitate recovery of the neuromuscular continence mechanism.

Pelvic organ distribution of mesenchymal stem cells injected intravenously after simulated childbirth injury in female rats.

The local route of stem cell administration utilized presently in clinical trials for stress incontinence may not take full advantage of the capabilities of these cells. The goal of this study was to evaluate if intravenously injected mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) home to pelvic organs after simulated childbirth injury in a rat model. Female rats underwent either vaginal distension (VD) or sham VD.

Stem cell therapy for incontinence: where are we now? What is the realistic potential?

A significant number of women experience stress urinary incontinence (SUI), which greatly affects their quality of life. Recent research investigating utilization of stem cells and their derivatives for the prevention and treatment of SUI has been performed to test the effect of cell source and method of administration in several animal models of SUI. The type of stem cell, timing of optimal dose or doses after injury, mechanism of action of stem cells, and route of administration must be investigated both preclinically and clinically before stem cell therapy becomes a possible treatment for SUI, although the future of this therapy looks promising.

Significance of muscularis mucosae in metastasis involvement of urinary bladder transitional cell carcinoma.

Objective: To assess the significance of muscularis mucosae involvement in metastasis of urinary bladder transitional cell carcinoma.

Material And Method: This was a retrospective cohort study of superficial urothelial carcinoma (transitional cell carcinoma). Histopathology and patient records of 192 patients were collected from 1990 to 2004.

Hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy for xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis with nephrocutaneous fistula after failed flank exploration.

Xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis presenting with nephrocutaneous fistula is a rare condition, and its treatment of choice is nephrectomy. Laparoscopic management has been proved to be challenging in these inflammatory renal conditions. However, there was no previous report in the literature regarding laparoscopic treatment of nephrocutaneous fistula especially after previous operation.

Laparoscopic radical cystectomy with ileal conduit diversion: the first case report in Thailand.

Objective: To report the authors' first experience on a surgical technique for laparoscopic radical cystectomy with ileal conduit diversion.

Material And Method: A 55 year-old man, weighing 65 Kg with histology proven T 2 transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder underwent laparoscopic radical cystectomy with ileal conduit diversion. The cystoprostatectomy was performed by laparoscopic technique, whereas ileal conduit and stroma were performed through a mini-laparotomy.