Materials and Methods
Between June 2016 and June 2020, a total of 27 patients who had a history of traumatic SCI were admitted to our working group that consisted of three urologists, a neurosurgeon, a neurologist, and a physical therapy and rehabilitation specialist. All interventions in the study were a matter of routine patient follow-up and compatible with the declaration by the World Medical Association on the Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects.
All patients had a referral urodynamic study which was compatible with detrusor overactivity despite regular use of an anticholinergic and mirabegron. A Visual Analogue Score (VAS) was obtained to evaluate concurrent neuropathic pain. A bladder diary comprising three consecutive days was obtained from each patient during their initial admission. After obtaining the diary, gabapentin (Neurontin, Pfizer Turkey, Istanbul, Turkey) therapy was initiated with a dosage of 100 milligrams a day. The patients were scheduled with outpatient appointments every 15 days, and the patients, or their caregivers, were instructed to complete a new bladder diary for the three consecutive days after each visit. Gabapentin dosage was further tailored due to the response of the patient up to 800 milligrams a day. Patients who responded to the gabapentin treatment were scheduled in regular yearly urodynamic studies while unresponsive patients were evaluated with a new urodynamic study and considered for Botulinum Toxin injections to the bladder. Clinical data obtained from the urodynamic studies, the bladder diaries, and the symptom scores before and after the gabapentin treatment were collected and compared.
The Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were performed to evaluate whether the interval data showed a parametric distribution. Therefore, interval data is presented as mean (Standard Deviation (SD) and nominal data are expressed as total numbers (n). Pre- and post-treatment findings were compared using a two-tailed t -tests, p values smaller than 0.05 were deemed as significant.