STROKE AND CONTINENCE PROBLEM

Stroke and Continence Problem

Stroke and Continence Problem

Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to review an article related to stroke and continence problem. Stroke can cause brain areas responsible for memory, learning and thinking. These patients may experience severe short-term memory loss. They lose the ability to plan, train new or lose their ability to complex mental activity. There are two types of disorders due to stroke - anosognosia. This lack of critical evaluation of the defect (paralysis, reduced vision, hearing, etc.) occurs mainly in lesions of the right parietal lobe.

Discussion

In this article, the author says that Urinary continence can affect between 40% and 60% of patients admitted to hospital due to stroke, usually, 25% have this problem at the time of discharge, and 15% still incontinent after a year. Urinary continence is a common consequence of stroke and has many causes. During the early rehabilitation, of stroke, systematic evaluation and treatment show promising results for reducing the number of people with urinary continence (Anger, 2004, p. 281). In the later stages of recovery from stroke, the use of specialist assessors may be helpful in reducing symptoms associated with urinary incontinence. Even long after a stroke may be useful interventions aimed at solving causes of incontinence. Unfortunately, all conclusions have limitations by the lack of consistent information. A stroke is characterized by a sudden loss of brain function due to an interruption of blood flow to the brain following an ischemic stroke (caused by the formation of a blood clot) or hemorrhage stroke (caused by the rupture of a vessel and subsequent bleeding in or around the brain).

Epidemiology

In the epidemiological study conducted in 27,936 EPINCONT women over 20 years in one county between 1995 and 1997, 25% of them confessed to having urine continence after stroke.

A recent study in four European countries (France, Germany, United Kingdom and Spain) carried out on responses from a survey mailed to 17,080 women over 18 years showed that 35% of them related involuntary loss of urine in the 30 preceding days. The prevalence rate was similar in all countries (41 to 44%), except in Spain where the rate was strikingly lower (23%) (Landefeld, 2007, p. 40).

In both studies clearly reflects that the prevalence of UI increases with age, with a typical rate in young adults from 20-30%, a peak around middle age (prevalence 30-40%) and then a slight increase and maintained at older ages (prevalence 30-50%).

Aetiology

In this article, the author discusses that many patients experience mixed urinary incontinence after stroke with both stress and urge symptoms. 'Overflow incontinence' refers to involuntary leakage which occurs, when the bladder is full and has usual association with poor bladder emptying during the voiding effort. This is most typically caused by detrusor hypo contractility. Obstruction of the urethral outlet, including benign prostatic hyperplasia, bladder neck contracture, or urethral stricture disease, may also cause incomplete emptying and overflow urinary incontinence (Hunskaar, 2000, p. 301). Many patients with overflow incontinence after stroke experience some change in ...