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Pelvic Neurophysiology

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Neuro-Urology

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Abstract

The role of pelvic neurophysiology in the clinical assessment of patients reporting bladder, bowel, sexual dysfunction and/or pelvic floor complaints is debatable, and this chapter provides an overview of the different tests that are available to assess the pelvic innervation. These include electromyography (EMG), evaluation of sacral reflexes (bulbocavernosus reflex), evoked potential studies (pudendal sensory evoked potentials and motor evoked potentials), nerve conduction studies (measurement of pudendal nerve terminal motor latency) and autonomic testing (recording genital sympathetic skin response). The chapter presents different clinical scenarios where pelvic neurophysiology testing may aid in the diagnosis of patients presenting with unexplained bladder/bowel/sexual complaints.

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Acknowledgements

This work was undertaken at the UCLH/UCL Institute of Neurology which received a proportion of funding from the Department of Health’s NIHR Biomedical Research Centres funding scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Uro-Neurology, The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, UK

    Jalesh N. Panicker

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  1. Jalesh N. Panicker
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Correspondence to Jalesh N. Panicker .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    Roger Dmochowski

  2. Department of Urology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    John Heesakkers

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Panicker, J.N. (2018). Pelvic Neurophysiology. In: Dmochowski, R., Heesakkers, J. (eds) Neuro-Urology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90997-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90997-4_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90995-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90997-4

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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