Urinary bladder biopsies in spinal cord injured patients

Study design: A series of 94 urinary bladder biopsies in spinal cord injure d (SCI) patients were histopathologically and statistically analysed. Objectives: The following hypotheses were examined: (1) The number of clini cal bladder infections per year in each patient does not influence the hist opathological type of inflammation of the urinary bladder, (2) The duration of the spinal cord lesion does not have a strong effect on the type of inf lammation, (3) The different neurological levels (upper and lower motor neu ron lesions) do not relate to a specific histopathology. Settings: All patients received their treatment at the Swiss Paraplegic Cen tre in Nottwil, near Lucerne (Switzerland). Methods: The samples were taken from the bladder fundus during endoscopic u rologic operations. Histopathological standard procedures were carried out. Statistical analysis including Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-square tests were pe rformed. Results: Histopathological analysis showed abnormal alterations of the urin ary bladder mucosa in 86 SCI-patients: (91.5%). 63 cases (67.0%) showed a c hronic type and 23 cases (24.5%) showed a subacute type of inflammation. A normal urinary bladder was found in eight cases (8.5%). The three hypothese s were statistically not rejected. Conclusion: Results demonstrated no correlation between the number of bladd er infections per year, the period since injury, the neurologic level of th e spinal cord lesion and the histopathology of the urinary bladder mucosa.