At Liverpool Women's Hospital we offer treatments for overactive bladder (OAB). One of those treatments is injection of Botox to the Bladder. Botox works by blocking nerves which make a muscle tighten.
When you have OAB the bladder muscle tightens too much. When Botox is injected in the bladder it stops the bladder muscle tightening as much. The effect of this is not permanent.
This procedure is completed by passing a thin tube connected to a camera into your bladder. A needle is threaded down the tube to complete the injections of Botox into the bladder wall. This is completed using local anaesthetic as an outpatient procedure and most patients tolerate the procedure very well.
Botox injections are effective for 7 out of 10 patients (70%), meaning that urinary urgency and incontinence are either significantly improved or cured. The effects of the injections last for around six to 12 months and then your symptoms may start to return. You can have more injections when this happens. There is no limit to how many times you can have Botox injections, and most people find that having repeat injections works well over many years.
There is evidence that after 12 years of repeated injections there is no damage to the bladder but this is a relatively new treatment and we do not yet know what happens if you have Botox injections for more than 12 years.
Patients established on treatment can self-refer for subsequent treatments when ready.