Urinary diversion via a continent ileal reservoir has been performed in 12 patients. An isolated ileal reservoir was constructed using the technique described for patients with a continent ileostomy. The ureters were implanted into an afferent segment provided with a reflux-preventing nipple valve. There were few operative complications and no operative mortality. Late complications involving malfunction of the nipple valves occurred in 8 patients and were corrected surgically. Postoperative followup presently is between 9 months and 6 1/2 years. Two patients have died: 1 in an accident and 1 of metastatic bladder carcinoma. The remaining 10 patients are continent and without reflux to the upper urinary tract. The reservoir generally is emptied by intermittent self-catheterization between 3 to 6 times daily. The volume capacity of the reservoir is more than 500 ml. Urinary cultures have been constantly negative in 7 patients and the contents of the reservoir more or less permanently contained bacteria in 5. Dilatation of the upper urinary tracts, progressive renal deterioration or metabolic disturbances have not been encountered. All patients are satisfied with this type of urinary diversion, especially those who have undergone other types of diversion previously.

The prevalence of urinary incontinence and lower urogenital tract symptoms, such as hesitancy, weak stream, dribbling, sensation of incompletely emptied bladder, nocturia, urinary tract infection and impotence, increased linearly with increasing age.

No abstract

Mortality in patients with stage M0 prostate cancer was surprisingly high when followup exceeded 10 years.

Clean intermittent self-catheterization is an established option in bladder management of spinal cord injury patients. Several early and a small number of long-term studies have reported good preventive or therapeutic effects on hydronephrosis, vesicourethral reflux, urinary tract infection and incontinence. Most reports describe the use of small catheters and liberal use of jelly but urethral complications, such as strictures and false passages, seem to increase with the length of followup. All 30 spinal cord injury patients in this retrospective study had used disposable hydrophilic, low friction catheters from the early shock phase to a median of 7 years (range 5 to 9). There were 26 upper motor neuron and 4 lower motor neuron lesions. After tap water soaking, the surface layer of the catheter coating has a friction constant more than 10 times lower than that for a regular plastic catheter (Nélaton) with chlorhexidine jelly. There was no hydronephrosis, pyelonephritis or renal scarring. In 3 patients who had decreased the clean intermittent self-catheterization regimen, signs of upper tract dilatation developed but the excretory urogram returned to normal after correction of the regimen. Of 30 patients 12 (40%) maintained sterile urine, while 4 of the remaining 18 with bacteriuria had episodes of urinary sepsis and chronic infections. Two patients had epididymitis. Of 6 men with occasional insertion difficulties when the clean intermittent self-catheterization regimen started after the indwelling catheter had been removed 4 showed yielding signs of strictures during the subsequent clean intermittent self-catheterization regimen. In 1 patient 2 dilation attempts had failed but the patient can perform the clean intermittent self-catheterization regimen. One patient with Crohn's disease had advanced urethral changes in the acute phase but could perform clean intermittent self-catheterization with a small catheter. One patient has had recurrent modifications of the urethral wall but no development of a false passage. The study indicates that patients who use hydrophilic low friction low friction catheters do as well as or better than patients using conventional catheters. Above all, there is no increase in severe urethral complications with time after injury. Progression towards strictures after early urethral trauma seems to be preventable by the use of this catheter.