Negligence resulting in Urinary Incontinence or UI

Read the latest on personal injury accident related news in the UK.

New NICE guidelines launched to improve treatment and care for millions of women suffering in silence
 

Source Onmedica

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Women’s and Children’s Health have published a clinical guideline on the best way to manage urinary incontinence (UI) in women.

The advice covers issues such as diagnosis, preventative measures, operative procedures and aftercare.

Urinary incontinence affects an estimated five million women in England and Wales aged over 20, yet the condition is largely a taboo subject. The problems can arise naturally or following medical negligence or errors during surgery. Urinary incontinence affects women at different ages.

It can occur in women after pregnancy as well as in later years, often having a major impact on their day-to-day lives. Many women are too embarrassed to seek help from their GP, and often are not aware that effective treatments are available. Urinary incontinence is the unintentional leakage of urine.

Diagnosis – a history should be taken from the woman to help categorise the type of incontinence. After checking for infections or any other conditions that may have caused the incontinence, the guideline recommends that women be asked to keep a ‘bladder diary’ for at least three days to help in assessing the condition.

Treatments: Lifestyle changes such as adjusting fluid intake and losing weight if the woman is very overweight are recommended to help improve all types of urinary incontinence. In treating stress incontinence or mixed UI, the guideline recommends at least three months of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) as a standard first line treatment for all women to train and strengthen the muscles that support the bladder and the urethra.

Training: Surgery for UI should only be performed by surgeons who are trained in the management of UI or who work in a multidisciplinary team with this training, and who regularly perform surgery for UI in women

The guidance states that absorbent products and toileting aids are not treatments, and recommends that they should only be used to cope whilst awaiting treatment, as an adjunct to ongoing therapy or for long-term management of UI if treatment has failed