Hope for those with no Bladder control

At 20, Savita has no control over her bladder. While going to a party or a three-hour film, the second year college student wears a diaper or uses a catheter (a rigid hollow tube employed to drain fluids from body cavities).

At 20, Savita has no control over her bladder. While going to a party or a three-hour film, the second year college student wears a diaper or uses a catheter (a rigid hollow tube employed to drain fluids from body cavities). Born with Spina bifida, a disease in which some of the nerves attached to muscles controlling the bladder are damaged, Savita (name changed) could not even attend college.

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But Tuesday morning brought hope for the Worli village resident. Savita became one of the first patients in India to be operated upon by Chinese surgeon, Dr Chuan-Guo Xiao, who specialises in a nerve re-routing surgery to correct loss of bladder control.

Xiao has pioneered a rare technique in 1995 called Xiao Procedure, which so far has helped up to 90 per cent patients he operated upon across the globe to regain bladder control.

The surgery involves joining a nerve of the urinary bladder to that of the thigh so that when a portion of the thigh is scratched or stimulated, the nerve contracts the bladder muscle to empty it.

“So, every time these patients have to pee they scratch their thigh to stimulate the bladder,” explained doctor Xiao who performed the surgery at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Andheri.