Stem Cell Therapy for Male Urinary Incontinence.

INTRODUCTION

Among the medical and surgical options which have been proposed in the last years for the management of male stress urinary incontinence (SUI), stem cell therapy represents a new frontier treatment. The aim of this paper is to update the current status of stem cell therapy in animal and human studies for the management of iatrogenic male SUI.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A PubMed review of the literature on stem cell therapy for the treatment of male SUI was performed.

RESULTS

Regarding animal studies, bone marrow-, muscle- and adipose-derived stem cells have been widely studied, showing regeneration of the urethral sphincter and recovery of the damaged pelvic nerves. With regard to human studies, only four papers are available in the literature using muscle- and adipose-derived stem cells which reported a significant improvement in sphincteric function and incontinence with no severe side effects.

CONCLUSIONS

In spite of these promising results, further studies are needed with longer follow-ups and larger numbers of patients in order to clarify the potential role of stem cell therapy for the treatment of male SUI.