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Urine leakage and bladder emptying problems can be caused by damage to the central nervous system. The nervous system is located in the brain and spinal cord.
Possible Bladder Problems
Depending on where the damage is located and how extensive it is, the following bladder problems may be experienced:
- Neurogenic uninhibited bladder
- Upper motor neuron damage ('reflex bladder ')
- Lower motor neuron damage ('flaccid bladder')
Click on the links to the right for more information on each of these bladder problems.
Communication Between Brain and Bladder
1. Cerebral Micturition Centre
2. Pontine Micturition Centre
3. Spinal Cord
4. Sacral Reflex Centre
5. Pelvic nerve
6. Pudendal nerve
7. Urethra
8. Sphincter
9. Pelvic floor
10. Bladder
11. Hypogastric nerve
Signals To and From the Brain
The spinal cord is about as thick as a finger and is very delicate. It lies in a fluid-filled canal in the vertebral column, inside the spine itself. There are the same kind of nerve cells in the spinal cord as in the brain. These cells send signals along long neural paths to the muscles and receive signals from the tactile organs such as your skin.
If the spinal cord or brain is damaged, these signals cannot get through to the brain or nerve centre and this disrupts their interplay.
Damaged Links
If the link between the bladder and the nervous system that controls the bladder is damaged, a neurogenic bladder dysfunction may be experienced.
The extent of this bladder dysfunction depends on where in the nervous system the damage has occurred. It is also affected by whether this damage is complete or incomplete, that is to say if all the neural paths have been broken or if some still function.
An injury can also affect the sacral nerve roots or the peripheral nerves. This often results in a dysfunction in the bladder filling and emptying phases. A person with a damaged spinal cord will experience problems both with bladder emptying and urine leakage.
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