Intermitterende sacrale neuromodulatie bij idiopathische overactieve blaas.

Overactive bladder (OAB) is a condition that is difficult to treat. Due to the increasing age in the population, it is also a condition that increases in incidence and prevalence in coming years. Neuromodulation has been proven to be a successful treatment for OAB. One of the main forms of neuromodulation is sacral neuromodulation (SNM). The reason why this method is used to a limited degree include the total costs and its invasiveness. Other forms of neuromodulation use intermittent stimulation with a proven reduction of symptoms of OAB. Several studies have shown the effectiveness of SNM using continuous stimulation. However, there has been no report of intermittent stimulation using SNM. Given the results of these alternative forms of neuromodulation it appears this intermittent stimulation must have a similar effect for SNM. This will improve the accessibility of SNM in two areas; significant cost saving and a reduction in invasiveness because of a reduction in the total amount of battery changes that patients need to undergo.

Patients will have to visit the hospital four times. This will be combined with a regular outpatient appointment if possible. An increase in symptoms of overactive bladder may occur during the study period. The service life of the battery of the neurostimulator may be elongated which will result in a reduction of the total amount of battery substitutions for this group of patients, given that intermittent neurostimulation has a minimal improvement of 50% of the symptoms of OAB compared to baseline.

To elongate the service life of the implantable neurostimulator while achieving a minimal improvement of 50% of the symptoms of overactive bladder compared to baseline.

Weeks 1,2,3,4,5,8,12,16.

In all patients the implantable neurostimulator will be automatically turned off for 18 hours a day.