Bladder Perforation in TURBT

 ccc_bbb  Can’t help too much but my bladder was perforated on TURBT #1, but they did not realise for a year. It unsurprisingly caused a lot of pain. However, yours should heal up nicely in a couple of weeks. Bad luck. Leo

Thanks Leo for such a prompt reply, so sorry you had this too and that it went undiagnosed that must have been so hard and painful. 

CCC sometimes there things happen, there is always risk in any medical procedure, bladder perforation is one such risk. It does not matter now, as my bladder has been removed in a recent RC. I hope you feel a bit better soon. Leo

Sorry to hear you’ve had a bladder perforation. I had a perforation back in May during my first TURBT; this can happen if the tumour is located close to the objurator nerve - the bladder is expanded during the TURBT procedure, pushing it close to the nerve. In my particular case, the tumour had been removed, the surgeon was trying to take some biopsies & touched the nerve, causing a leg spasm & ensuing perforation.

You have my sympathy; I developed severe abdominal pain due to the extra large catheter (I also had urine & blood leaking from the catheter, so needed to sit on mattress protectors to preserve furniture). I found lying prone to be comfortable, but standing & especially moving around the house was excruciating. I believe the abdominal pain to have been caused by the large expanded ‘balloon’ which has been inserted into the bladder ( I believe this balloon pushes against the bladder wall & allows that to heal)

I didn’t have the catheter & balloon in for 2 weeks, only 5 days - is it perhaps worth a call to ask can it be removed earlier? As soon as the balloon & catheter were removed my abdominal pain disappeared instantly, so it is temporary!

Because of my bladder perforation, the surgeon didn’t install chemotherapy into my bladder as planned (due to the risk of this spreading to the rest of the body). In hindsight this wasn’t an issue as the histology of my tumour came back as high grade & chemotherapy isn’t a recommended treatment for high grade bladder cancer.

I hope you get the catheter removed soon.

Best wishes 

Gareth

Hi ccc 

sorry to hear you’ve had this and can’t offer any advice on perforation but what I will say if you are going to be having a catheter in for that length of time try to ensure your not eating anything that will make going for the other toilet visits a strain I experienced bladder spasms when I had a catheter in two days on the run when visiting the toilet for the other and they can be painful if they happen I had to introduce some laxative to help 

Ste 

Hi Gareth, thank you for taking the time to provide me with this insight, that has been really helpful to read although sorry to hear this too was an issue for you. I didn’t realise the leg spasm was a possibility but that makes sense from your explanation (I was coming off my anaesthesia when the doctor told me so not 100% sure what he’d said!). 

It feels like you might be right about the pain, although the dr was keen to keep it in for as long as possible to ensure it’s healed 100% before I get my results (and treatment plan, whatever this will be). I’m still learning about the options here, so again your knowledge on the above was really useful to read, so thank you. May I ask what treatment you are having/had? 

wishing you all the best. 

I’ve got my entire journey written up on a Macmillan blog (aggressive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer). I’m sure your histology results will be more favourable than mine were. You might find you’ve got low grade bladder cancer (treated with intravesical chemotherapy - this doesn’t give you the same side effects as intravenous chemo), or non muscle invasive bladder cancer that can be easily treated with BCG immunotherapy.

Unfortunately, my histology results were as disappointing as possible; a large 3.5cm tumour was removed, it was pretty deep into the connective tissue, there was carcinoma in situ present also and the tumour was high grade (high grade means more aggressive cancer, more likely to grow & spread quicker). All these negatives added together meant I chose the nuclear option & opted to remove my bladder. I had a Radical Cystectomy operation on 25th September. I’m recovering nicely and best of all the histology results on the bladder & surrounding lymph nodes were great after the Op; no cancer cells in either the bladder muscle or lymph nodes! There was an incidental finding of low grade prostrate cancer, but as the prostrate’s been removed this will obviously never be an issue!

Again, hopefully you’ll get your catheter removed soon & also your histology biopsy results will bring good news.

Best wishes 

Gareth

Hi Ste, thank you for your good advice. I am trying to eat really well with lots of fresh veg and fruit and have introduced a laxative which has helped with that side of things so thank you for the advice. The spasms seem for now to have reduced thankfully. 

Hi Gareth, you have really been through it but so encouraging to hear you sound so strong and positive considering. Thanks again for your help and I hope you continue to stay well.