Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a highly devastating injury with a variety of complications; among them are neurogenic bladder, bowel, and sexual dysfunction. We aimed to evaluate the effect of sacral anterior root stimulation with sacral deafferentation (SARS-SDAF) on neurogenic bladder and sexual dysfunction in a large well-defined spinal cord injury cohort.
In the manner of cross-sectional study, subjects undergone SARS-SDAF between September 1986 and July 2011 answered a questionnaire concerning conditions before and after surgery in the department of Neuro-Urology, Bad Wildungen, Germany.
In total 287 of 587 subjects were analyzed. Median age was 49 years (range 19-80), median time from SCI to surgery was 10 years (range 0-49), and from surgery to follow-up 13 years (range 1-25). Of the analyzed subjects, 100% of both gender used SARS for bladder emptying. On the visual analogue scale (VAS) ranging from 0 to 10 (best), satisfaction with SARS-SDAF was 10 concerning bladder emptying, however 5 and 8 regarding sexual performance, for female and male users, respectively. Baseline and follow-up comparison showed a decline in self-intermittent catheterization (p < 0.0001), partial catheterization by attendant (p = 0.0125), complete catheterization and suprapubic catheterization (p < 0.0001), transurethral catheterization (p < 0.0011), and fewer cases of involuntary urine leakage (p < 0.0001).
The SARS-SDAF is a beneficial multi-potential treatment method with simultaneous positive effect on multi-organ dysfunction among SCI subjects.
Acta neurochirurgica. 2018 May 10 [Epub ahead of print]
Hamed Zaer, Mikkel Mylius Rasmussen, Franko Zepke, Charlotte Bodin, Burkhard Domurath, Johannes Kutzenberger
Department of Neurosurgery, CENSE, Aarhus University, Nørrebrogade 44, building number 10, 5th floor, 8000, Aarhus, Denmark. ., Department of Neurosurgery, CENSE-spine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark., Department of Neuro-Urology, Werner-Wicker-Klinik, Bad Wildungen-Reinhardhausen, Germany.