Etiology and clinical manifestations of adenocystitis

       Adenocystitis is a benign lesion of the bladder mucosa caused by chronic bladder irritation due to urinary tract infections, obstruction, and stones. The normal bladder mucosa is composed of migratory epithelium, but under chronic stimulation by various physicochemical factors of inflammation and obstruction, the local mucosal tissue evolves into glandular epithelium, which leads to adenoid cystitis.  Adenoid cystitis is prevalent in the young and middle-aged female population and is often misdiagnosed as a urethral syndrome. According to recent studies, adenoid cystitis is a precancerous lesion that, if left untreated, evolves into bladder cancer in about 4% of patients in a few years. The diagnosis of adenocystitis relies on specialist cystoscopy and pathological biopsy. The current treatment of choice for adenoid cystitis is transurethral electrodesiccoscopic vaporization of the lesion, which has the advantages of minimal invasiveness, rapid recovery, and good efficacy. If there is no improvement with the above treatment, the patient should return to the hospital once a week for 6-8 weeks after discharge to be treated with drug bladder irrigation.  The etiology of adenoid cystitis is still unclear, but most believe that the cause is related to chronic irritation of the bladder due to infection, obstruction, stones, etc., and the result of chemotactic changes in the normal bladder urothelium. Adenocystitis mostly presents with symptoms of chronic nonspecific cystitis and painless hematuria or microscopic hematuria, and is often treated with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory therapy without significant results before cystoscopy is considered, extending the course of the disease to 2 to 3 weeks later.  Adenocystitis is a non-neoplastic inflammatory lesion that has been on the rise in recent years. Previously, a proportion of those diagnosed with “female urethral syndrome” belonged to this condition. Adenoid cystitis is currently considered to be a precancerous lesion and is associated with chronic irritation from harmful chemicals, persistent recurrent infections, lower urinary tract obstruction, and stones.  The main clinical manifestations of adenocystitis are urinary urgency, frequency, painful urination, microscopic hematuria, difficulty in urination and other lower urinary tract symptoms. The clinical symptoms of adenoid cystitis are not specific, and the diagnosis is mainly based on cystoscopy and biopsy, with the prevalent sites being the triangle, bladder neck, and below the internal urethral opening. The microscopic lesions are characterized by mucosal congestion, rice-sized hyaline cystic or papillary bullae. The pathology shows uroepithelial hyperplasia deep below the lamina propria forming Brunn’s nests with slits or branching or annular lumens and glandular structures in the center, along with infiltration of lymphocytes and plasma cells.  There are various treatments for adenocystitis, including simple intravesical irrigation, simple cystotomy, bladder injection therapy, partial cystectomy, bladder mucosal stripping, and even total cystectomy. Our transurethral resection and early postoperative intravesical bladder instillation of anticancer drugs have good efficacy. However, some authors have shown that the difference in efficacy between transurethral resection alone and intravesical instillation of anti-cancer drugs is not significant. However, we believe that since there are many indications that adenocystitis can be transformed into bladder cancer, short-term treatment with transurethral resection alone followed by anticancer drugs is not satisfactory. Treatment should be accompanied by attention to the management of lesions in the urinary tract below the bladder, and postoperative concomitant administration of alpha1-blockers to treat spasm of the internal urethral sphincter is necessary to improve the patient’s self-conscious symptoms. The efficacy of adenoid cystitis is judged by complete disappearance of symptoms, normal urine routine examination, normal mucosa on cystoscopy review, and normal biopsy on follow-up as cured; symptoms basically disappeared, but there are intermittent urinary tract irritation symptoms, intermittent hematuria on urine routine examination, but no infection exists, normal mucosa on cystoscopy review or scattered lesions remain unhealed as improved; symptoms do not improve, or symptoms recur after improvement, and cystoscopy review or biopsy No significant improvement is considered ineffective. There is a relationship between adenoid cystitis and bladder cancer. Pantuck et al. detected the expression of monoclonal antibody mAbDasl in adenoid cystitis and bladder cancer and confirmed that adenoid cystitis is a precancerous lesion of bladder adenocarcinoma. Therefore, adenoid cystitis should be reviewed regularly with long-term follow-up, and early cystoscopy combined with tissue biopsy is important in the early diagnosis of adenoid cystitis. The advantages of TUR, such as safety, minimally invasive and repeatable, make the treatment of adenoid cystitis effective with continuity.  Adenoid cystitis is prone to recurrence, so it is important to review the cystoscopy regularly, usually every 6 months during the first year and every 12 months thereafter, which should continue for about 2-3 years to allow for timely detection of suspicious lesions and early management.