Bench to Bedside in Neuro-Urology

Dear Colleagues,

The prevalence of neurogenic lower urinary tract, sexual and bowel dysfunction is high and affects the lives of millions of people worldwide. It not only has a major impact on people’s quality of life but also imposes a substantial economic burden on every healthcare system.

The control of lower urinary tract function is a complex, multilevel central and peripheral process; the associated neural network is distributed across parasympathetic, sympathetic and somatic pathways. Therefore, it is not surprising that in many neurological disorders, such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, spinal cord injury, spina bifida, diabetic neuropathy, Alzheimer’s disease, etc., lower urinary tract, sexual and bowel dysfunction is a frequent manifestation. The location and extent of the lesion in the neurological axis determines the dysfunction pattern, which is reflected in the patient’s symptoms. Indeed, the variability of neurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunction is huge and may range from a completely asymptomatic situation to end-stage renal failure that requires hemodialysis. In addition, the prevalence and incidence of several neurological disorders are already high, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease will further increase in their prevalence and incidence due to the continuously aging population; so, increasing numbers of neurological patients will require professional neuro-urological management. This, however, can only be provided by adequately trained clinicians and enthusiastic researchers, as many questions regarding the neural control of lower urinary tract, sexual and bowel function and its alterations through the course of a neurological disorder remain unclear.

This Special Issue of Biomedicines focuses on studies conducted at the basic science, preclinical and clinical research levels in neuro-urology, and welcomes both original research articles and review papers.

Prof. Dr. Thomas M. Kessler
Guest Editor

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