Low-Frequency Intravesical Electrical Stimulation for the Treatment of Acute Urinary Retention: A Promising Therapeutic Approach

Tingting Cao; Bing Xie; Siyuan Yang; Jiaqi Wang; Xiao Yang; Boqiang Shen; Xueke Lin; Xiuli Sun; Jianliu Wang

doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.572846

Low-Frequency Intravesical Electrical Stimulation for the Treatment of Acute Urinary Retention: A Promising Therapeutic Approach

Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 Mar 8:8:572846. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.572846. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Tingting Cao^{1

2

3}, Bing Xie^{1

2

3}, Siyuan Yang⁴, Jiaqi Wang^{1

2

3}, Xiao Yang¹, Boqiang Shen¹, Xueke Lin⁵, Xiuli Sun^{1

2

3}, Jianliu Wang^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China.
² The Key Laboratory of Female Pelvic Floor Disorders Disease of Peking University, Beijing, China.
³ The Research Center of Female Pelvic Floor Disorders Disease of Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Hematology and Lymphoma Research Center, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.
⁵ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Quanzhou First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China.

Abstract

Acute urinary retention (AUR) is a troublesome urological disease, which causes various lower urinary tract symptoms. However, only few studies explored and evaluated the effective treatments to improve AUR. We aimed to find an effective approach to cure AUR through comparing the efficacy of existing classical low-frequency transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and novel intravesical electrical stimulation (IVES). A total of 24 AUR female rats were divided into 3 groups as follows: control, TENS, and IVES groups. Rats in the control group had no fake stimulation. Rats in the TENS and IVES groups underwent transcutaneous or intravesical stimulation of a symmetrical biphasic rectangular current pulse with a frequency of 35 Hz, 30 min per day, for seven consecutive days. IVES significantly reduced the actin expression in the submucosal layer but increased its expression in the detrusor layer (p = 0.035, p = 0.001). The neovascularization in the submucosal layer in the IVES group was significantly increased than in the other 2 groups (p = 0.006). Low-frequency IVES performed better than TENS in terms of simultaneously relieving bladder hyperactivity, accelerating epithelial recovery, and strengthening detrusor muscle. IVES may be a promising therapeutic approach for bladder dysfunction, specifically for AUR and overactive bladder in clinical practice.

Keywords: acute urinary retention; histology; intravesical electrical stimulation; low-frequency transcutaneous nerve electrical stimulation; rat.