I'm not incontinent. I need an expert's opinion. It essentially relaxes the bladder wall, thereby inhibiting bladder spasms which frequently occur in a hyperactive bladder. It entails placement of a catheter into the bladder and another one in the rectum, and measuring volumes and pressure while filling up the bladder and later when the patient is asked to urinate. A duplicated collecting system, on the other hand, is a completely separate problem which may involve reflux of urine from the bladder, through one of the duplicated ureters, into the kidney.
Reflux occurs due to a short muscle wall backing the ureter as it enters the bladder.
By taking a bladder muscle relaxing agent such as Detrol, one may prevent reflux from spasms if the bladder spasms are prevented. In women, large bladder pressures are not required in order to urinate, and therefore you may not actually have large voiding pressures sufficient to cause reflux of urine while urinating. Although we cannot say this for sure in your case. The only way to know whether you reflux while urinating is to be evaluated by your urologist with a Flourourodynamic test which is similar to test mentioned above, but involving contrast dye and X-ray. In summary, you may benefit from Detrol if you have a hyperactive bladder and reflux, but need to follow-up closely with your urologist if you continue to develop any further episodes of pyelonephritis.