Transitional cell carcinoma in the blind‐ending branch of the bifid ureter

Abstract

The fifth cytological examination of urine showed Case report tumour cells. Abdominal CT was used to visualize the right blind-ending bifid ureter and the thickness of its A 67-year-old Japanese woman with a history of surgical and irradiation treatment for breast cancer presented walls. The diagnosis was cancer in the blind-ending branch of the bifid ureter, for which a total nephrouret-with macroscopic haematuria; IVU revealed moderate dilatation of the right ureter. Four urine specimens were erectomy was indicated (Fig. 1). During surgery, the blind-ending branch was found to be filled with serous, all negative for malignant cells, including the specimen obtained from right ureteric catheterization. The right dark brown fluid and the orifice of the lumen was narrow. The surgical specimens showed TCC, grade 3, retrograde ureterogram showed a short ascending branch originating in and lateral to the lumbar ureter. pT3N0M0 (Fig. 2), and the patient received adjuvant a b Fig. 2. a, Whole-mount section showing non-papillary, invasive tumours in the blind-ending branch (arrow). b, Histologically, the Fig. 1. Cut surface of the blind-ending ureter (opened longitudi-tumours were transitional cell carcinoma, grade 3. Haematoxylin and eosin, reduced from ×200. nally) showing irregular mucosa (arrow). 307

Letter to the editor Distal blind-ending branch of a bifid ureter

“…Patients who develop symptoms generally have complaints about abdominal pain, dysuria, frequency micturition, and haematuria. These complaints might depend on stone formation, vesicoureteric reflux or ureteral tumour [3–6]. Our patient did not have any symptoms or complications related to blind-ending bifid ureter.…”

Case Report of Bifid Ureter with a Blind Ending: Surgical Laparoscopic Management

“…The reflux is also responsible for the fact that the blind-ending ureter is only partially emptied, therefore giving rise to stagnation of the urine in the blind-end and a greater propensity for urinary infection and stone formation. Rare cases of urothelial carcinoma have been reported in the blind endings of bifid ureters [ 8 , 9 ].…”

Blind-ending branch of a bifid ureter: multidetector CT imaging findings

“…The cause of pain is an inflammatory process in the blindending ureteral branch, a concrement formed at the site of urinary retention or peristaltic disturbances caused by ureteroureteral reflux [6]. There has also been at least one case of transitional cell carcinoma arising from within this anomaly [7]. The study most frequently used to diagnose this anomaly is iv urography.…”