EMSELLA in Tampa: How It Works and What to Expect

Urinary incontinence is one of the most common problems patients live with quietly. A leak when you cough, laugh, or lift something heavy. A sudden urge that sends you looking for the nearest bathroom. Many adults assume it is simply part of getting older and never mention it to a doctor. It is worth mentioning, because it can be treated.

EMSELLA is a treatment chair made by BTL. You sit on it, fully clothed, while it delivers high intensity focused electromagnetic energy, known as HIFEM, into the muscles of the pelvic floor. The FDA has cleared this technology for the treatment of urinary incontinence. At Neuromag Institute in Tampa, the EMSELLA chair is part of a medical neurology practice, so bladder symptoms are evaluated by a physician first, not treated on autopilot.

Here is how a neurologist looks at bladder control. Continence is a coordination task shared by the brain, the nerves of the pelvis, and the pelvic floor muscles. The bladder fills. Nerves report the stretch. The brain decides whether this is the right time and place. In between those decisions, the pelvic floor holds the line. When the muscular part of that system weakens, which happens with age, childbirth, some surgeries, and inactivity, leaks begin.

Dr. Jairo D. Libreros is a board-certified neurologist who has practiced in Tampa for about 30 years. His approach is to treat incontinence as part of the nervous system it belongs to, starting with an evaluation rather than a sales pitch. You can read more about the practice and his background.

You sit on the chair fully clothed. No probes, no needles, no undressing. BTL, the manufacturer, reports that one session lasts about 28 minutes and produces approximately 11,000 supramaximal contractions of the pelvic floor. Supramaximal means stronger than the strongest contraction you could produce on your own. The electromagnetic field does the work; your job is to sit.

Most people describe a tingling sensation and a strong, rhythmic pulling as the muscles contract. It is generally well tolerated, and there is no downtime afterward. You can drive yourself home and return to normal activity right away. BTL recommends a typical course of about six sessions, usually scheduled over about three weeks.

Start with the regulatory fact: the FDA cleared EMSELLA for the treatment of urinary incontinence. Clearance is a formal review of a device's safety and intended use. It is meaningful, and it is also not a promise that any one person will get a specific result.

In practice, the honest answer is that results depend on what is causing your leaks. If the weak link is the pelvic floor, strengthening it addresses the problem directly, and that is exactly what HIFEM is designed to do. If the cause lies elsewhere, in the nerves, the bladder itself, a medication, or an infection, a chair will not fix it, and you deserve to know that before you commit to a treatment course. That is why the evaluation comes first at Neuromag Institute. Muscle takes time to respond to training, so improvement is judged over the full course of sessions, not after one visit.

Kegels work. Pelvic floor muscle training, done correctly and consistently, is a mainstay of care for stress and urge incontinence, and no chair changes that. The difficulty is inside those two words: correctly and consistently. Many people contract the wrong muscles without knowing it, and many stop exercising before the muscles have had time to change.

EMSELLA automates the hard part. The HIFEM field locates the pelvic floor for you and drives it to supramaximal effort thousands of times in a single session, an intensity and repetition count that voluntary exercise cannot reach. A neurologist would describe it the way we describe any supervised strength program for a weak muscle: consistent, high intensity training tends to beat inconsistent training.

They are complementary, not competitors. Patients who keep doing Kegels between sessions, and after the course ends, are reinforcing the very muscles the chair has been training.

EMSELLA is aimed at stress incontinence, meaning leaks with coughing, sneezing, laughing, or exercise, at urge incontinence, meaning a sudden need to go that is hard to postpone, and at mixed patterns of the two. BTL, the manufacturer, reports the chair can be used to treat both women and men.

None of this is meant to alarm. It is the ordinary discipline of medicine: identify the cause, then match the treatment to it. For most people with straightforward stress or urge symptoms, that screening is quick.

Neuromag Institute is located at 4914 N. Armenia Ave. in Tampa. The practice is fully bilingual in English and Spanish, and EMSELLA is offered alongside clinical neurology, so the physician who evaluates your symptoms belongs to the same practice that treats them. If incontinence has been quietly shrinking your world, deciding where you sit in a theater or how far you walk from home, the first step is a conversation, not a commitment. Contact the office or call (813) 876-7246 to ask whether EMSELLA fits your situation.