Type of Surgery
Information
Last updated: 02/17/2009
Bladder augmentation, also known as augmentation cystoplasty, is reconstructive surgery to increase the reservoir capacity of the bladder. The procedure is very common and involves tissue grafts (anastomosis) from a section of the small intestine (ileum),...
stomach, or other substitutes that are attached to the urinary bladder by sewing or stapling. Whether due to chronic obstructive bladder damage, birth defects that resulted in small reservoir capacity, or dysfunction due to nerve innervation of the bladder muscle (sphincter), surgery is chosen only after a thorough medical work-up that involves assessment of the lower urinary tract, functional physiological evaluation, and anatomic assessment. Some laparoscopic methods (surgery with a fiber-optic instrument inserted through the abdomen) of bladder augmentation have been tried, but reports indicate that these are technically arduous and may not have the long-lasting effects of open surgery.
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Bladder augmentation is a surgical alteration of the urinary bladder. It involves removing strips of tissue from the intestinal tract and adding this to the tissue of the bladder. This has two intended results: increased bladder volume; and a reduced percentage of the bladder involved in contraction, that in turn results in lower internal pressures in the bladder during urination.
Risks of bladder augmentation include incomplete voiding of the bladder post-surgery (resulting in the patient having to undergo intermittent catheterisation or an indwelling catheter), acute intestinal obstruction due to adhesions some years after surgery, and, in extremely rare cases, cancers of the intestinal tissue within the bladder. It must be stressed that this risk is very small, and some specialists[weasel words] still regard the link to cancer as a theoretical one.
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