Author(s)

Hui Chen^1*, Keji Xie², Chonghe Jiang³, Xinghua Yang⁴, Jingwen Zeng³, Maping Huang⁴, Qiuling Liu⁴, Jiebing Huang⁴, Tianhai Huang⁴, Yanfeng Li⁴, Jing Liu⁴, Shumei Xie⁴

¹Department of Urology, Guangdong Provincial Work Injury Rehabilitation Hospital and Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
²Department of Urology, Guangzhou First Municipal People’s Hospital, Guangzhou, China.
³Department of Urology, Qingyuan People’s Hospital, Qingyuan, China.
⁴Department of Spinal Cord Injury Recovery Center, Guangdong Provincial Work Injury Rehabilitation Hospital, Guangzhou, China.

Objective: To assess the safety and efficacy of bladder irrigation for reducing the morbidity of bladder stones in patients with neurological lower urinary tract dysfunction (NLUTD). Methods: From June 2012 to July 2013, patients with NLUTD were prospectively randomized and assigned to either a bladder irrigation group or a no bladder irrigation group. Bladder irrigations were performed twice a week by urologists. Patients were followed up at 6 months respectively. Primary outcomes were Incontinence-Specific Quality-of-Life Instrument (I-QoL), the rate incidences of bladder stone. All adverse events were also noted. Results: A total of 80 eligible patients participated and 78 (97.5%) patients (bladder irrigation, n = 39; no bladder irrigation, n = 39) completed 24 weeks of follow-up. Out of the 78 patients, 19 (24.3%) developed bladder stones. All occurred in no bladder irrigation group. In 8 of the 19 patients (42.1%), stones were only detected by cystoscopy. The bladder stones were mostly thin with an eggshell appearance (78.95% for diameter of stone < 5 mm, 84.21% for volume of bladder stone < 0.2 cm3). Bladder stones were removed by vigorous bladder irrigation guided by ultrasound (73.68%) or endoscopic lithotripsy (26.32%). The I-QOL was significantly better in the bladder irrigation group than in no bladder irrigation group at weeks 6, 12, 18, and 24 of follow-up. Conclusion: Bladder irrigation may be more effective and safer than no bladder irrigation for reducing the morbidity of bladder stone in spinal cord injury patients.

Bladder Irrigation, Bladder Stone, Spinal Cord Injury

Chen, H. , Xie, K. , Jiang, C. , Yang, X. , Zeng, J. , Huang, M. , Liu, Q. , Huang, J. , Huang, T. , Li, Y. , Liu, J. and Xie, S. (2015) Can Bladder Irrigation Reduce the Morbidity of Bladder Stone in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury?. Open Journal of Urology, 5, 42-47. doi: 10.4236/oju.2015.54007.