Radiology, Vol 188, 787-789, Copyright © 1993 by Radiological Society of North America
Fluoroscopically guided percutaneous suprapubic cystostomy for long- term bladder drainage: an alternative to surgical cystostomy
MJ Lee, N Papanicolaou, BN Nocks, JA Valdez and IC Yoder
Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
Percutaneous large-bore suprapubic cystostomy catheters were placed under
fluoroscopic guidance in 60 patients as an alternative to surgical
cystostomy. Foley catheters (16-20 F) were placed in 57 of the patients in
a one-stage procedure. Ten-French catheters were initially placed in three
patients because of difficulty in dilating percutaneous tracks because of
obesity (one patient) or dense scar tissue (two patients). Three weeks
later, 18-F Foley catheters were placed in these three patients when mature
tracks had developed, making dilation easier. Minor complications occurred
in three patients, including superficial track bleeding in two and
urosepsis in one. Fifteen patients were lost to follow-up. Suprapubic
catheters provided excellent long-term drainage (range, 0.5-36 months;
mean, 16 months; median, 18 months) in the remaining 45 patients. The
authors conclude that percutaneous suprapubic catheter placement is a safe
and effective procedure that provides excellent long-term bladder drainage.
