Urol. praxi, 2011; 12(4): 249-255
Urinary bladder diseases encompass a wide spectrum of conditions from clearly defined anatomic injury (e.g., by tumor, trauma, infection,
post-radiation injury) to more difficult-to-define functional control of urination (e.g., enuresis, incontinence). Bladder diseases present as
a variety of uncomfortable symptoms (dysuria, pollakiuria, nycturia) and, often, as a change in urine color (hematuria, pyuria). The most
frequent pathological entity affecting mostly women is infectious cystitis, both acute and recurrent or chronic. Likewise, more than 50 %
of women have to cope with some degree of incontinence, most often stress incontinence, at one or another point of their lifetime. In
cases where conservative therapy involving body weight reduction, exercise designed to strengthen the pelvic floor, pharmacotherapy
using, e.g., anticholinergics, and electrostimulation has failed, surgical management is opted for with moderate degrees of incontinence.
Techniques employing polypropylene bands (mini-invasive sling procedures) have been synonymous with a more up-to-date, rapid, and
less risk-associated approach to the treatment of stress-related incontinence. Another major group includes bladder tumors frequently
found in men and women and requiring costly and challenging therapy, most importantly because of high recurrence rates. Treatment of
the above conditions should only be undertaken by a erudite urologist with in close collaboration with other specialists from diagnostic
centers as well as from departments of oncology, gynecology, and nephrology.
Published: August 10, 2011 Show citation