THE USE OF SALIVARY STIMULANT PASTILLES TO IMPROVE COMPLIANCE IN WOMEN TAKING OXYBUTYNIN HYDROCHLORIDE FOR DETRUSOR INSTABILITY - A PILOT-STUDY

Objective To assess the efficacy of salivary stimulant pastilles in im proving tolerance of and compliance with oxybutynin chloride for detru sor instability.Patients and methods Thirty women with detrusor instab ility were treated with oxybutynin in either a fixed or variable dose. After 3 weeks, patients were given salivary stimulant pastilles (Sali vix, Thames Laboratories, Clwyd, UK) to chew as often as required. Sym ptom diaries were used to record episodes of dry mouth (xerostomia) to gether with a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS) score of the severity of xerostomia. Results The frequency of xerostomia was unchanged but there was a significant decrease in median severity from 71 to 39 on t he VAS (P<0.05, Mann-Whitney U-test), Nine patients on the variable-do se regimen tolerated a higher dose of oxybutynin when taking the pasti lles (P<0.01, Wilcoxon's matched-pairs test). Conclusion Salivary stim ulant pastilles appear to be a useful adjuvant therapy for patients re ceiving oxybutynin chloride for detrusor instability, allowing higher doses of oxybutynin to be tolerated.