Stress Urinary Incontinence

For most people, nonsurgical treatments like exercise, medicine and behavior changes can reduce the symptoms of SUI, but not actually cure it. Surgical treatments are much more likely to resolve the problem.

The right choice of treatment will depend largely upon the underlying cause of the problem and how extensive it is. After examining you, your doctor will be able to discuss the options with you and recommend the one that may be most effective.

Exercising the muscles of your pelvic floor routinely can help prevent stress urinary incontinence, as well as other types of bladder problems. These exercises are called Kegels, and involve squeezing the muscles in your pelvic floor as if you were trying to stop urinating.

Complication risks depend on the severity, type and cause of your stress urinary incontinence as well as the type of procedure performed and graft material used. For example, synthetic mesh may erode requiring another surgery to correct.

Biodesign is an advanced tissue repair material that allows the body to restore itself.

Once in place, the body infiltrates Biodesign with cells and new blood vessels. Over time Biodesign is completely replaced, so you can have a strong repair without any foreign material in your body long-term.

There are two main categories of tissue repair materials:

Synthetic Mesh These are sheets of man-made materials (polypropylene, polyester, silicone or polytetrafluoroethylene) that permanently remain in your body. While they offer strength for a repair, they may cause problems. For example:

• You might be able to feel the mesh in your abdomen, causing discomfort.
• Synthetic mesh can erode into surrounding tissue or organs, resulting in pain and tissue damage.
• Your body might respond to synthetic mesh as a foreign material and surround it with scar tissue.

Biologic Grafts Derived from human or animal tissue, biologic grafts typically allow cells to grow into the graft and replace it—a process called remodeling. Some biologic grafts are made from skin tissue, which makes them prone to stretching and bulging. Other biologic grafts are chemically altered to strengthen the material. However, when these grafts are implanted, your body may respond to them as if they were synthetic mesh.

Biodesign: A Next Generation Biologic Graft Biodesign is a next generation biologic graft shown to reduce recurrence rates when compared to other biologics. That's because once in place the body completely remodels Biodesign into strong, organized tissue.

And unlike synthetic mesh, nothing is left permanently in the body to cause problems down the road.

Biodesign is based on a technology originally developed in the late 1990s. Since then, it has been continually improved into its present design, named Biodesign, and is used in multiple areas of the body.

Several steps in the manufacturing of Biodesign ensure its safety as a graft. All Biodesign products are made of porcine material that undergoes thorough cleaning and disinfection using controlled medical device manufacturing procedures. Biodesign is provided as a sterile medical product.

Biodesign is approved for sale in almost every country across the globe. Your surgeon should know if it is available in the hospital where he or she practices.

Any surgery has potential for complications. Talk to your surgeon for more information. The following complications are possible with the use of Biodesign surgical mesh: bleeding, infection, abscess, induration, acute or chronic inflammation (initial application of surgical graft materials may be associated with transient, mild, localized inflammation), allergic reaction, visceral adhesions, fistula formation, seroma formation, hematoma, extrusion, recurrence of tissue defect, and delayed or failed incorporation of the device. See Instructions for Use for specific complications related to a particular product.