Re: Kari A.O. Tikkinen, Anssi Auvinen. Does the imprecise definition of overactive bladder serve commercial rather than patient interests? Eur Urol 2012;61:746-8: The origin of the term overactive bladder, industry, and patient care

摘要

Thank you for allowing us to comment on this interesting editorial [1] that raises a number of important points. The term overactive bladder (OAB) was introduced by us against the wishes of the company that asked us to organise a symposium on "unstable bladder" in 1996. The history of the introduction of the term OAB has been previously documented in detail [2]. The company objected to our idea because the drug that the company intended to bring to market would have been granted a licence for use in patients with the diagnosis of unstable bladder, which, Tikkinen et al. [1] rightly point out, was the term accepted by the regulators at that time. We insisted on the use of OAB, the company finally conceded, and the term was used in all the publications that resulted from that scientific meeting, which covered all aspects of the subject area from basic science to surgical management [3].