Types of Bladder Surgery

Bladder surgery is a medical solution for patients who no longer respond to other forms of bladder treatment. Should a patient need surgery, he must discuss it thoroughly with a surgeon. There are many types of bladder surgery available to patients with bladder problems.

One is partial cystectomy which is done when only a portion of the bladder has to be removed. This type of bladder surgery is not usually being performed. It is only done as a solution to adenocarcinoma of the bladder and such cases are very rare. Urine will still pass through the bladder the normal way after an operation. The only evident change is increase in frequency of urination.

Radical Cystectomy is another bladder surgery procedure where the whole bladder is to be removed along with the surrounding lymph nodes. If the patient is male, the surgeon will also take away the prostate. For female patients, it is the urethra that needs to be removed. Urethra is tube-like organ where urine passes through whenever the bladder excretes urine out of the body. In severe female cases, the womb and ovaries will have to be removed as well. The problem after this type of bladder surgery is of course a way to excrete urine. There are other surgeries that can solve this problem. One solution is urostomy or ileal conduit. Another one is continent urinary diversion. You need to discuss this matter with your physician and surgeon if you intend or need to undergo radical cystectomy.

Urostomy or ileal conduit is a type of procedure where a bag will be provided to collect the urine. It is likely using a bit of a small bowel to make the urine pass from the ureters to the urostomy bag. Continent urinary diversion is a newer procedure but it is not often done to patients because of the complication of the procedure and the very low success rate that it offers. It is almost like urostomy but the urine collector is a pouch inside the abdomen. Urine will be collected by means of a catheter.

Another bladder surgery type is bladder reconstruction. This is also a very new procedure but it cannot be done all types of patients. It is only possible for patients with low risk that the cancer will come back and if the urethra is not affected yet.