A urethral bulking injection is a gynecological procedure and medical treatment used to treat involuntary leakage of urine: urinary incontinence in women.
Bulking agents are injected into the mucosa surrounding the bladder neck and proximal urethra.
It restores the ability to retain urine during coughing, laughing and other normal occurrences that increase inter-abdominal pressure[1] Some women choose to have urethral bulking injections because they wish to avoid surgery or the use of mesh material.
Information that is gathered prior to the injection includes consists of a medical history and physical exam.
A free-flow uroflowmetric examination gives additional information about flow rate, voided time and volume.
[citation needed] Urethral bulking agents were first used in 1938 and incorporated morrhuate sodium as the injection material.
A successful bulking agent should be readily available, non-inflammatory, easy to inject, easy to prepare, efficacious, durable, inexpensive, biocompatible, nonimmunological, long-lasting, non-migrating (the size of the particles should be larger than 80 μm) adult stem cell injection therapy using autologous muscle-derived stem cells for the regenerative repair of an impaired sphincter is currently at the forefront of incontinence research.
Small pilot studies have suggested restoration of the urethral sphincter over several months' time.