Bladder irrigation is a routine way to prevent recurrence of bladder cancer. The nurse instills the drug directly into the bladder through urethral cannula, which can kill some relatively small or potential tumors in the bladder; since the drug only contacts with the bladder wall and does not enter the blood, it will not cause the common blood, liver and kidney toxicity of chemotherapy. At present, the commonly used solutions are the chemotherapy drugs Pyridoxine and Epirubicin, and we seldom use the immune preparation BCG, which is often mentioned on the Internet, because this drug cannot be bought domestically and is also very expensive, more than 1000 yuan for one.
In Chaoyang Hospital, the bladder cancer electrodes should be perfused directly after the surgery, so that the medicine can kill all the tumor cells remaining in the bladder and urethra, which is more conducive to inhibit tumor growth. In the first month after surgery, perfusion should be done once a week; from the second month to the third month, it should be done once every two weeks; three months after surgery, cystoscopy should be done, and if no tumor is detected, perfusion should be done once a month after that. The cost of irrigation depends on the drug, usually around one thousand dollars a time. If patients have urinary tract infection, inflammation or fever and cold before irrigation, they should not do bladder irrigation, they need to wait until they recover and make an appointment for irrigation. The urology clinic of Chaoyang Hospital has medical staff to do bladder irrigation every day.
You need to make an appointment at the outpatient clinic for bladder irrigation (of course, you can do it at your local hospital). On the day of irrigation, patients need to bring their medical records as well as their discharge records to the urodynamic room (4th floor of the West Hospital and 8th floor of the East Hospital); there is no strict water abstinence requirement before irrigation, but it is best to drink less water to avoid diluting the medication. Patients can insert the urinary catheter to instill medicine once they arrive at the perfusion room, after which they should lie on the treatment bed for half an hour, with the time equally distributed between lying on the left side, lying flat, and lying on the right side, so that the medicine is in full contact with all parts of the bladder; they can urinate half an hour after instillation, as the medicine will not enhance its effect by staying in the bladder for too long, but may cause cystitis due to drug stimulation.
The most common discomfort after bladder irrigation is painful urination, which usually lasts for two or three days, and there may be smaller blood clots during urination, which are relatively common side effects and do not need to be overly nervous. However, if the pain is unbearable, chemical cystitis may have occurred and you need to see a doctor as soon as possible and wait until the inflammation has healed before continuing bladder irrigation. In order to reduce the irritation, the medication needs to be adjusted when perfusion is done again. If the patient still cannot tolerate it, the lesser of two evils, in order to better preserve the bladder function, the patient can no longer do the perfusion treatment, but accordingly, the chance of tumor recurrence will be a bit higher.