Seven-year efficacy and safety outcomes of Bulkamid for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence.

Aims: Bulking agents are a minimally invasive treatment option for women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) or stress-predominant mixed urinary incontinence (MUI). The aim of this study was to evaluate long-term efficacy and safety following treatment with Bulkamid as a primary procedure for SUI or stress-predominant MUI.

Methods: This was an Institutional Review Board-approved single-center retrospective study of female patients with SUI or stress-predominant MUI who had undergone injection with Bulkamid since 2005 and had completed 7 years of follow up.

Urethral bulking for recurrent stress urinary incontinence after midurethral sling failure.

Aims: To assess the effectiveness of a polyacrylamide hydrogel (PAHG; Bulkamid®) in treating recurrent stress urinary incontinence (SUI) following a previous midurethral sling (MUS) implant.

Methods: This observational study, conducted since 2009, included 60 patients with recurrent SUI or mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) after a previous MUS and who chose to be treated with PAHG. Objective and subjective outcomes were assessed at 1, 6, and 12 months after the initial injection.

An open multicenter study of polyacrylamide hydrogel (Bulkamid®) for female stress and mixed urinary incontinence.

Introduction: Polyacrylamide hydrogel (PAHG, Bulkamid®) is a promising urethral bulking agent. This multicenter study was carried out to evaluate safety and efficacy of Bulkamid® for female stress and mixed urinary incontinence.

Methods: Submucosal injection of Bulkamid® was performed in 135 women with urinary incontinence (stress, 67; mixed, 68) followed for 12 months.

Bipolar coagulation with the BiClamp forceps versus conventional suture ligation: a multicenter randomized controlled trial in 175 vaginal hysterectomy patients.

Purpose: To compare bipolar vessel sealing (BVS; BiClamp) versus conventional suture ligation in vaginal hysterectomy.

Methods: A multicenter, single-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted at eight women's hospitals in Germany. One hundred and seventy-five patients with benign uterine disease underwent vaginal hysterectomy using BVS (n = 88) or conventional suture ligation (n = 87 controls).

An increase in cell number at completion of therapy may develop as an indicator of early relapse: quantification of circulating epithelial tumor cells (CETC) for monitoring of adjuvant therapy in breast cancer.

Purpose: Treatment efficiency of adjuvant therapy in breast cancer is only revealed after several years by statistical evaluation and gives no answer for the individual patient. We here present a method to analyze the response to adjuvant chemotherapy online in individual patients.

Methods/results: In 25 consecutive non-metastatic primary breast cancer patients adjuvant fluorouracil/epirubicin/cyclophosphamid (FEC) or EC followed by taxane (EC-T) or cyclophosphamid/methotrexate/fluorouracil (CMF) therapy were given.

Quantification of circulating tumour cells for the monitoring of adjuvant therapy in breast cancer: an increase in cell number at completion of therapy is a predictor of early relapse.

Treatment efficiency of adjuvant therapy in breast cancer is revealed after several years by statistical evaluation, but this gives no answer for the individual patient. Having shown that circulating epithelial tumour cells (CETC) respond to neoadjuvant therapy in exactly the same way as the tumour, we monitored adjuvant therapy in 25 non-metastatic breast cancer patients. Nineteen patients with a decline or no change in number of CETC showed no relapse whereas six patients with a more than ten-fold increase had five distant and one local relapse, indicating that the dynamic of CETC in the individual patient is predictive of outcome.