|
Neurological means 'of the nervous system'. The nervous system is located in your brain and spinal cord. Urine leakage and bladder emptying problems can be caused if the central nervous system is damaged.
Depending on where the damage is located and how bad it is, the following bladder problems may occur:
- Neurogenic Uninhibited Bladder
- Upper motor neuron damage or ‘reflex bladder’
- Lower motor neuron damage or ‘flaccid bladder’
Your spinal cord is about as thick as a finger and is very delicate. It lies in a ‘canal’ that goes through the middle of your spine. You have the same kind of nerve cells in your spinal cord as you do in your brain. These send signals to your muscles and they receive signals from the senses (touch, smell, sight, etc).
If the spinal cord or brain is damaged, these signals cannot get through to your brain or nerve centre and this disrupts the communication. If the link between your bladder and the nervous system that controls your bladder is broken, you experience Neurogenic Bladder Dysfunction.
The extent of this bladder dysfunction depends on where in the nervous system the damage occurs. It is also affected by whether the damage is ‘complete’ (all broken) or ‘incomplete’ (some still work).
An injury can also affect the nerves and this can often result in a problem with the bladder’s ability to fill or empty. A person with a damaged spinal cord will have problems with both bladder emptying and urine leakage.
|