Trauma of the bladder

Abstract

The records of 98 patients with trauma of the bladder were reviewed. Eighty per cent were injured as a result of blunt trauma, and 72 per cent of these patients had an associated fracture of the pelvis. The most common type of injury was a contusion, followed by an extraperitoneal rupture of the bladder. In all patients, diagnosis was established by the means of a retrograde cystogram. While all patients with intraperitoneal ruptures of the bladder were treated by surgical repair, half of those with extraperitoneal ruptures were successfully managed by catheter drainage alone. Complications of therapy consisted of bacterial cystitis, presumably as a result of catheter drainage.