Urinary system: Urinary incontinence
Definitions & Key takeaways
Urinary incontinence: Urinary incontinence is involuntary urination, and it can be temporary or persistent. The main types of urinary incontinence include stress incontinence, overflow incontinence, and urge incontinence. With stress incontinence, urine is lost during coughing, laughing, sneezing, or during physical exercise. Overflow incontinence happens when the bladder doesn't empty properly and becomes overflown with urine. It's usually associated with urinary retention and is often caused by an enlarged prostate in older biological males.
Urge incontinence is a sudden desire to pass urine that's difficult to delay and is accompanied by involuntary leakage of urine. Always inform the nurse when you notice changes in your clients' patterns of urination or when a client involuntarily loses urine. Treatment of urinary incontinence depends on the underlying cause and may include lifestyle changes, medication, pelvic floor muscle exercises, or surgery.
Intro0:00–1:01
Urinary incontinence happens when an individual involuntarily passes urine. There are two types of urinary incontinence: temporary or persistent.
Temporary incontinence is reversible once the cause is resolved. It can be caused by a number of things, including a bladder infection or after removing an indwelling catheter that’s been placed for a long time.
Persistent incontinence is irreversible. It can be caused by a number of things, such as decreased muscle tone in the muscles of the bladder or the muscles supporting the bladder.
This can occur after childbirth or from obesity. Other causes include injuries or conditions that affect the spinal cord, the brain, or the nerves that control the bladder or even dementia.
Urinary incontinence can be challenging to live with because it can be very embarrassing. Moreover, having urinary incontinence can put an individual at risk for having skin problems, such as rashes and pressure ulcers.
Consequences of urinary incontinence1:01–1:31
It also puts a person at risk for falling because of rushing to the bathroom to avoid involuntarily losing urine. For the caregiver, the incontinent individual might have specific needs, like needing clothing and bedding changed frequently.
Types of urinary incontinence1:31–5:04
There are many types of urinary incontinence, such as stress incontinence, urge incontinence, functional incontinence, overflow incontinence, and reflex incontinence.
In this video, we’ll be covering stress incontinence, urge incontinence, and overflow incontinence. Let’s take them one by one.
Stress incontinence is the most common type of urinary incontinence. With stress incontinence, urine is lost whenever the abdominal pressure is increased.
This can happen when coughing, sneezing, laughing, or during physical exercise. Stress incontinence can also happen if an individual delays going to the bathroom, and the bladder becomes too full.
Factors that contribute to stress incontinence include childbirth, obesity, or loss of muscle tone as a result of aging.
It can also happen in biological males after prostate surgery. Treatment of stress incontinence includes exercises to strengthen the muscles that support the bladder and urethra or surgery.
Finally, absorbent incontinent products can be used to protect bedding and clothing for all types of incontinence. Next up is urge incontinence, which is a sudden desire to pass urine that’s difficult to delay and is accompanied by involuntary leakage of urine.
It’s common in individuals with urinary tract infections. That’s because irritation of the bladder can lead to muscle spasm in the bladder, which can further lead to voiding the bladder with little to no warning.
Other causes include an enlarged prostate gland or increased intake of caffeine or alcohol. Treatment includes addressing the cause of the incontinence, such as treating a urinary tract infection with antibiotics, lowering the intake of caffeine or alcohol, or treating the enlarged prostate gland with medication or surgery.
Overflow incontinence basically happens when the bladder overflows with urine, causing some of it to leak out. It’s usually associated with urinary retention, which is the inability of the bladder to empty completely during urination.
Urinary retention can happen when the bladder outlet is blocked, like with an enlarged prostate gland or when there’s swelling in the urethra during labor or childbirth following a surgical procedure.
Other causes include injuries in the spinal cord that can also keep the bladder from fully emptying. Because the bladder can’t empty completely during urination, it also refills quickly with urine, becoming full again in a very short amount of time.
At this point, urine simply overflows. As a result, the person might dribble urine in between visits to the bathroom.
When an individual can’t empty their bladder completely, sometimes it’s necessary to insert a catheter to allow urine to drain from the bladder and prevent urinary retention and overflow incontinence to occur.
Treatment of overflow incontinence involves addressing the cause. If overflow incontinence was caused by childbirth, then exercise and surgery might be of help.
If an enlarged prostate gland is the cause of overflow incontinence, then, as said before, medication or surgery are the answers.
Let’s now talk about benign prostatic hypertrophy, which represents the enlargement of the prostate gland in biological males as they age.
Benign prostatic hypertrophy5:04–5:47
As a result, it makes the process of urination difficult. Individuals with benign prostatic hypertrophy have symptoms that include frequent or urgent need to urinate, weak stream of urine during urination, increased frequency of urination, especially at night, and difficulty starting urination.
Reporting 5:47–6:15
Also inform the nurse whenever the client is having difficulty voiding and when there are signs of a urinary tract infection, such as pain in urination and frequent urination.
Recap6:15–7:10
All right, as a quick recap... Urinary incontinence is involuntary urination, and it can be temporary or persistent.
The main types of urinary incontinence include stress incontinence, overflow incontinence, and urge incontinence. With stress incontinence, urine is lost during coughing, laughing, sneezing, or during physical exercise.
Overflow incontinence happens when the bladder doesn’t empty properly and becomes overflown with urine. It’s usually associated with urinary retention and is often caused by an enlarged prostate in older biological males.
Urge incontinence is a sudden desire to pass urine that’s difficult to delay and is accompanied by involuntary leakage of urine.
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