Authors from Detroit assess the use of the bipolar TURP against the monopolar technique; there were relatively few patients, reflecting the decreasing requirement for TURP in the USA. In addition, the amount of resected tissue was not particularly large, almost certainly a reflection of the decreasing size of resected prostatic tissue in that country. They found the bipolar TURP to have many advantages over standard monopolar TURP, and these are described. Acute urinary retention is a common urological emergency, and authors from London found that it had a measurable impact on the health‐related quality of life of patients who develop this problem. They describe particularly how painful a condition it is, and that it had a significant economic burden. OBJECTIVE To assess bipolar transurethral prostatectomy (TURP) using the Gyrus system (Gyrus Medical, Maple Grove, MD) compared with a standard monopolar TURP. PATIENTS AND METHODS All 43 patients undergoing TURP from November 2000 to August 2002 were reviewed retrospectively; the 1.5‐year observation period allowed for the detection of late complications. In all, 18 consecutive patients had standard and 25 had bipolar TURP. RESULTS The resection was 18 g for standard and 15 g for the Gyrus TURP (part of the Gyrus chips are vaporized during resection). The Foley catheter was removed sooner (1.8 vs 3.2 days) and the hospital stay was less in the Gyrus group (1.2 vs 2.1 days). Acute complications occurred in a third of the standard group and four (16%) of the Gyrus group. Long‐term complications were comparable, at two each in the standard and Gyrus groups. Four patients (15%) with small glands went home on the day of surgery, needing no bladder irrigation after Gyrus TURP. CONCLUSION Few innovations in TURP technique have been described in the past few decades but comparing Gyrus to standard TURP showed that the former allows earlier removal of the urinary catheter and earlier discharge from hospital, while decreasing complications. The Gyrus system also has other benefits; it allows coagulation of tissue during resection, resulting in excellent intraoperative visualization, and normal saline is used as the irrigant fluid, reducing the potential for TUR syndrome. The shorter stay after Gyrus TURP can result in cost savings of up to $1200/patient/day at our institution.

Overactive bladder (OAB) is a highly prevalent urinary condition with a profound affect on quality of life. Urinary urgency is the cornerstone symptom that defines OAB and drives all subsequent OAB symptoms. The clinical assessment and measurement of urgency has been limited by its definition, limited understanding of well-defined pathophysiology, and psychometric measurement properties. This review outlines the important issues relevant to the clinical assessment and measurement scales commonly used to evaluate and measure urinary urgency. This will have important implications toward further understanding and advancing the field of overactive bladder. Neurourol.

Aims: We sought to explore our patient outcomes utilizing sacral neuromodulation in the management of refractory urinary urge incontinence following urogynecological surgical procedures. Methods: A total of 25 women with urinary urge incontinence following urogynecological surgery were selected for SNS therapy and retrospectively analyzed. All patients completed a comprehensive urological evaluation. Clinical data was recorded to determine outcomes and identify parameters that would be predictive of response to neuromodulation. Outcomes were determined via subjective patient questionnaire and graded as follows: signi¢cant response (80% improvement), moderate response (50% and <80% improvement), and poor response (<50% response). Results: Nineteen patients had a previous pubovaginal sling (10 with concomitant pelvic prolapse repair), 3 a previous retropubic suspension, and 3 a transperitoneal vesicovaginal ¢stula repair. Urethrolysis was performed in 4 patients to alleviate bladder outlet obstruction prior to sacral neuromodulation. Mean patient age was 59.8 years and length of follow-up was 7.2 months. Twenty-two women (88%) had the IPG placed during a Stage 2 procedure. Twenty patients maintained at least a 50% improvement in clinical symptoms at last follow-up and 6 patients were continent. Overall, the number of pads/day improved from 4.2 to 1.1 (P < 0.001). There were no signi¢cant di¡erences in response to neuromodulation based upon age, duration of symptoms, type of surgery, or urodynamic parameters. Conclusion: Sacral neuromodulation appears to be an e¡ec-tive therapy in patients with refractory urge incontinence following urogynecological surgery. Larger prospective studies with longer follow-up are needed to assess the durability of this therapeutic modality. Neurourol. Urodynam. 26: 29^35, 2007. ß 2006

Following urethrolysis overactive bladder symptoms may remain refractory in 50% or greater of patients, which has a negative impact on quality of life and the impression of improvement after surgery. Detrusor overactivity demonstrated preoperatively may be useful for predicting who may have persistent overactive bladder symptoms despite an effective urethrolysis procedure.

Inflammation is a physiological process that characterizes many bladder diseases. We hypothesized that nicotinic and estrogen signaling could down-regulate bladder inflammation. Cyclophosphamide was used to induce acute and chronic bladder inflammation. Changes in bladder inflammation were measured histologically and by inflammatory gene expression. Antagonizing nicotinic signaling with mecamylamine further aggravated acute and chronic inflammatory changes resulting from cyclophosphamide treatment. Estrogen and nicotinic signaling independently attenuated acute bladder inflammation by decreasing neutrophil recruitment and down-regulating elevated lipocalin-2 and cathepsin D expression. However, the combined signaling by the estrogen and nicotinic pathways, as measured by macrophage infiltration and up-regulation of interleukin-6 expression in the bladder, synergistically reduced chronic bladder inflammation. The elevated expression of p65 nuclear localization in bladders treated with cyclophosphamide or cyclophosphamide with mecamylamine suggested nuclear factor-B activation in the chronic inflammatory process. The complementary treat-ment of 17␤-estradiol and the nicotinic agonist anabasine resulted in the translocation of p65 to the cytoplasm, again greater than either alone. Activation of nuclear factor-B can result in macrophage activation and/or elevation in epithelial proliferation. These data suggest that 17␤-estradiol and anabasine reduce chronic bladder inflammation through reduction of nuclear translocation of p65 to suppress cytokine expression. (Am J

Acutely cyclophosphamide treatment results in a greater frank bladder inflammation model in mice than protamine sulfate. However, cholinergic signaling can inhibit inflammation by either mechanism of induced bladder injury. Interleukin-6 gene expression is present and it can be regulated by afferent neuronal signaling even in the absence of observed histological changes in acute bladder inflammatory models.

Voiding dysfunction is not an uncommon finding after sling excision in the setting of genitourinary erosion. It may cause additional patient morbidity.

Although occurring with somewhat less frequency now than historically reported, outlet obstruction after incontinence surgery continues to be a source of postoperative patient dissatisfaction and therapeutic dilemma. Several techniques have been described that fall under the rubric of urethrolysis, including sling incision, sling lysis with explantation, and formal vaginal or retropubic urethrolysis (incision and disruption of bladder neck and urethral fibrosis). Surgical approaches have included vaginal, retropubic, or combined techniques with or without the use of adjunctive steps such as graft interposition. However, evidence emanating from reports of these varied techniques has been incomplete due to variability in outcomes presentation, lack of longevity of follow-up, or problematic study design. Nonetheless, the bulk of clinical evidence supports the efficacy of urethrolysis as an intervention for outlet obstruction after stress incontinence surgery. However, persistent irritative bladder symptoms remain bothersome for some women and, in addition, the recurrence of stress incontinence also may complicate the technique of urethrolysis. Management of these potential adverse outcomes also has been inconsistent, with some authorities routinely performing repeat incontinence surgery at the time of urethrolysis and others preferring to assess continence status after convalescence from urethrolysis. The differences among the types of urethrolysis and the results of each type are reviewed in this article in light of evolving definitions of outlet obstruction, diagnosis, and definition in women.