BTL Emsella chair: Does it help for incontinence?

Posted by thehowlingdog @thehowlingdog, Oct 12, 2022

Looking forward to my RP on October 31 (happy Halloween!) My goal is to get back to running as soon as possible. To that end, I had a demonstration of the BTL Emsella chair that is claimed (at least by everyone who would like to sell me the therapy .......) to be effective in more quickly recovering from incontinence by accelerated exercise of the pelvic floor muscles. Since I am not thrilled with the idea of peeing all over myself, or other runners, during a race I am intrigued/excited and have already dubbed it "MY iron throne". Doing research online yields no clinical or scientific studies, only accolades that accompany ads for the service. Anyone here have actual experience with this device? Thanks in advance!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Prostate Cancer Support Group.

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Oct 16, 2022

@thehowlingdog, I see that a clinical trial is currently recruiting participants to test the Emsella chair's efficacy.
- BTL Emsella Chair Versus Sham for the Treatment of Stress Urinary Incontinence https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04133675

Here is a meta-analysis
- An Effective Meta-analysis of Magnetic Stimulation Therapy for Urinary Incontinence https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6591355/

I found these and a few more studies using Google scholar. It looks like the Emsella may be promising, but that there have not been that many studies and none that I found specific to men with urinary incontinence due to prostate cancer treatment. High cost is also a factor to consider.

@maxvt has been sharing about his success with diligence in doing regular pelvic floot exercises here. https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/760920/

thehowlingdog | @thehowlingdog | Oct 18, 2022

Thanks Colleen. Clearly this is is a new technology that "shows promise" but I can see that the sheer number of individual patient variables make a rigorous clinical trial a daunting task. At the best, a RP recovering patient trying this MAY enjoy a faster return to full control --- but never know for certain what factors were responsible. At worst, you've just pissed away (sorry, couldn't resist) $1,500 dollars and be no better or no worse off than conscientiously doing manual kegels alone.

meda | @meda | Dec 11, 2023

In reply to @colleenyoung "@thehowlingdog, I see that a clinical trial is currently recruiting participants to test the Emsella chair's..." + (show)

Hi Colleen,

I see that your reply is over a year ago so I wonder if your reply would be different now? I understand that the FDA cleared the Emsella chair and that it recently (Jan,/2023) was cleared by Medicare for approval. Does that mean
Mayo may have the equipment or be getting it? I am a current patient. Thank you.

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Dec 16, 2023

In reply to @meda "Hi Colleen, I see that your reply is over a year ago so I wonder if..." + (show)

Hi @meda, a search on Google Scholar doesn't show any new information that I could see:
https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=Magnetic+Stimulation+Therapy+for+Urinary+Incontinence&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart
The clinical trial being conducted by William Beaumont Hospitals cited above isn't scheduled to be complete until 2025.

I don't know if Mayo Clinic offers this treatment for urinary incontinence for men with prostate cancer. I'd be interested what your urologist would know about its efficacy.

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