Cystoscopy is a common method of screening for genitourinary disorders, which allows for the diagnosis and treatment of a number of genitourinary disorders under direct vision.
For patients with hematuria, cystoscopy is often an irreplaceable test. It can not only clarify the cause of hematuria, but also provide treatment for some diseases that cause it. For example, cystoscopy can detect early bladder tumors (bladder cancer) and allow radical treatment of them without incision, allowing long-term survival of the patient. Most patients with bladder stones can also have the stones broken up and removed through cystoscopy without going under the knife.
Cystoscopy can diagnose and treat not only bladder and urethral disorders, but also certain ureteral, renal, and even pelvic disorders.
How painful is a cystoscopy?
With a skilled urologist, most patients require only a little local anesthetic to complete the examination, and some female patients (with wide, short, straight urethra) can even undergo cystoscopy without anesthetic. Only very few patients (especially those with suspected adenocystitis) require general anesthesia under IV.
If you have concerns about cystoscopy and are financially able, you can also find a hospital that has a fiberoptic cystoscope for your cystoscopy. A fiberoptic cystoscope provides a larger, clearer, finer and softer image than a regular cystoscope. Of course, a fiberoptic cystoscopy is less painful than a regular cystoscopy.
The cystoscope has been invented and used for over 100 years. With the continuous development of science and technology, especially the application of optical fiber and wide-angle field of view technology in the past 20 years, the construction of cystoscopy has reached a new level of modernization, and a series of diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopes such as pyeloscopy, ureteroscopy, electrosurgery, laparoscopy and lithotripsy instruments have emerged, forming a new situation and rapid progress in urology. Cystoscopy is becoming safer and less painful.
So, when your doctor recommends a cystoscopy, please do not hesitate to ask for it, it is not as painful as you think.
Of course, not all urinary tract disorders require cystoscopy. Especially for those patients suffering from acute cystourethritis, cystoscopy will only add to the pain. If the volume of the bladder is less than 50 ml, cystoscopy can sometimes be dangerous and inexperienced doctors are likely to pierce the bladder.
Please listen to your doctor as to whether or not you should have a cystoscopy and when to have one.