Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2020 May 27:33:101283.
doi: 10.1016/j.eucr.2020.101283. eCollection 2020 Nov.

Melanosis of the bladder: A rare diagnosis

Diana M Lopategui  1 , Roger C Griffith  2 , Janice Santos Cortes  3
Affiliations
Case Reports

Melanosis of the bladder: A rare diagnosis

Diana M Lopategui et al. Urol Case Rep. .

Abstract

Melanosis of the bladder is characterized by dark, velvety bladder mucosa due to melanin deposition. Less than 25 cases have been reported. We present a 45-year-old male undergoing work up for obstructive and storage irritative lower urinary tract symptoms, found to have diffuse bladder melanosis on cystoscopy with bladder biopsy, and detrusor overactivity on urodynamic study. Although bladder melanosis has been found before in conjunction with storage voiding symptoms, this is the first report to our knowledge of an association with overactive bladder with urodynamic and histologic confirmation.

Keywords: Bladder melanosis; Cystoscopy; Overactive bladder; overactive bladder, OAB; urodynamic study, UDS.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

We declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Left ureteral orifice on cystoscopy (panel A) and bladder mucosa (panel B).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Bladder biopsy H&E, 200X (panel A): golden brown granular pigment is present mostly in the superficial urothelial but also in deeper cells and in macrophages in the lamina propria, which is congested with focal hemorrhage. Bladder biopsy Fontana-Masson, 200X, (panel B): the pigment is stained black by the Fontana-Mason stain in the urothelial and the lamina propria, consistent with melanin. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Yau S.E., Singer E.J., Sun Y., Johnson M.E. Bladder melanosis with concurrent urothelial carcinoma. Urol Case Rep. 2017 Nov;15:30–32. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Liu Z.H., Foo D.C.C., Law W.L., Chan F.S.Y., Fan J.K.M., Peng J.S. Melanosis coli: harmless pigmentation? A case-control retrospective study of 657 cases. PloS One. 2017. Oct 31;(10):12. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Compérat E., Reitz A., Delcourt A., Capron F., Denys P., Chartier-Kastler E. Histologic features in the urinary bladder wall affected from neurogenic overactivity--a comparison of inflammation, oedema and fibrosis with and without injection of botulinum toxin type A. Eur Urol. 2006 Nov;50(5):1058–1064. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources