(Photo Provided with Release Courtesy of Allegheny Health Network)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) According to a recent release in Pittsburgh from Allegheny Health Network (AHN), a new AHN study confirms that lidocaine injections improve postoperative pain for women who undergo a surgical procedure to improve urinary incontinence symptoms, and these injections do not impact the ability of the patients to empty their bladder in the days following surgery. These findings have the potential to change the postoperative recovery plan and improve outcomes for women who need the midurethral sling surgery. The clinical trial results that were published in Urogynecology by researchers at AHN’s Women’s Institute showed that patients who receive retropubic lidocaine, which is a widely used local anesthetic, during midurethral sling placement report lower postoperative painkiller use, improved postoperative pain, and better overall satisfaction with surgical outcomes compared to their placebo counterparts. The use of lidocaine did not increase acute postoperative urinary retention (POUR) following the procedure to treat stress urinary incontinence (SUI) most notably, with the same number of patients being able to successfully empty their bladder in both the lidocaine and placebo groups. Charlie Miller, MD, Jessica C. Sassani, MD, and Lindsay Turner, MD, all of AHN Women’s Institute, who are all pictured in the headline photo for this story, were lead researchers of the trial.