European Markets for the Surgical Treatment of Male Urinary Incontinence

Urinary incontinence (UI) is the involuntary release of urine associated with the physiologic or psychologic inability to control bladder and sphincter activities and typically represents a symptomatic manifestation of other known or undetected medical conditions.

Based on the occurrence of symptoms, the core types of UI are stress urinary incontinence (SUI), overactive bladder (OAB)/urge incontinence, mixed incontinence, and overflow incontinence. Stress urinary incontinence is the most common form of UI, accounting for up to two-thirds of total patient caseloads, the majority of this population being female; this condition is the most amenable to surgical intervention. In contrast, OAB (including urge incontinence) is most amenable to pharmaceutical intervention.

Urinary incontinence will usually disappear after its cause has been eliminated. However, chronic or permanent incontinence usually results from a functional impairment of a physiologic or neurologic nature including alcoholism; damage by previous surgeries; diabetes; diseases/disorders of the bladder, cerebral cortex, or spinal cord; hormone imbalances; prostatic obstruction or urethral trauma, which may cause atonic bladder; or trauma from brain damage or spinal cord injury.

Urinary incontinence is a global problem, afflicting more than 50 million people in Europe and the United States (U.S.); the majority of this population is female. Although the number of women with SUI is estimated at more than 15 million in the U.S. alone, only slightly more than 2 million men worldwide suffer from the most common form of UI––SUI. In 2006, the number of men in the countries covered by this report––France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the Benelux countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg––with chronic and debilitating SUI secondary to intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD) as a result of prostatectomy was estimated at approximately 365,500.

The prevalence of UI increases with age, in part due to decreased bladder volume and increased urinary frequency. Urinary incontinence is twice as common in women as in men as a result of pregnancy, childbirth, menopause, and female urinary tract anatomy.