Urinary Nerve Rewiring

Another exciting new development in urology: urinary nerve rewiring.

So far they are trying this for people with spina bifida and spinal cord injury. Of course it is also exciting for people with CRS/SA.

"The children previously required the insertion of a catheter to empty their bladder or endured significant incontinence. But as a result of the surgery, they are beginning to void on their own and are also seeing improvement in bowel function. Initially they signaled the bladder to urinate by scratching or pinching their leg or buttocks. But, remarkably, in most patients the brain was able to take over and control urination normally.

Another story on this can be found at Gaining Control.

Urology Research: Growing Bladders

Some exciting research is being done on growing new bladders from people's own tissue! These are starting out being targeted to children with spina bifida, which is exciting because CRS/SA is very similar to SB in some ways, at least in its effects on the urology system.

The company, Tengion, that is working on this is actually located just a few miles from where I live! I'd love to get some kind of job there. Anyway, here is their site: Tengion. Some news stories about it can be found at:

Tengion Trying to Grow Human Organs

Tengion Inc. Presents Tengion Neo-Bladder