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Expert discusses work on female urethra dysfunction
"We really need better options with the least side [amount of] effects for these patients," says Zhina Sadeghi, MD.
In this video, Zhina Sadeghi, MD, discusses her work on understanding female urethra dysfunction. Sadeghi is a UCI Health urologist and assistant professor of urology at UCI School of Medicine.
Transcription:
Could you summarize some of your current research?
I'm a neurourologist and a reconstructive urology surgeon, and my focus is both on the neurogenic patients and their urinary tract and urinary dysfunction issues that they do have, from leakage of urine all the way to urinary retention, problems that can happen to kidneys for them. I also focus on the non-neurogenic patients, urinary incontinence issues from different angles; is it related to their bladder or their urethra or support of the urethra? One of the main projects I'm running these days is focused on understanding female urethra dysfunction. The female urethra is basically a 5-cm tube that connects the bladder to the outside, and currently, in none of our treatment options that we have for incontinence or leakage of urine for women is this dysfunction addressed. Our current treatments are only focused either on the support around the urethra using a mesh or a sling, or a fascial sling, or it is focused on the bladder for overactivity and calming down the bladder and urgency incontinence. My research is basically understanding how urethra dysfunction plays a role in the middle of this whole incontinence picture. And if we do have potential options that we can develop, to augment the other treatment options that we do have, or maybe introduce safer options with more long-term efficacy for patients. We do have animal models in the lab working on the urethra aging of mice at this point. And we are working on mechanistics of aging impact on the urethra because as we know, 50% to 60% of women around the world throughout their life will suffer from urinary leakage. That means from every 2 women, 1 is going to have some level of urinary incontinence. So it's a big problem; one fourth of our population is impacted by it, and we really need better options with the least side [amount of] effects for these patients.
This transcription was edited for clarity.
