Multiple bladder biopsies under intravesical lignocaine anaesthesia.

OBJECTIVE

To study biopsy quality, complications and patient acceptance when urinary bladder biopsies were taken under local anaesthesia.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

Multiple large cold-cup urinary bladder biopsies were taken under topical lignocaine anaesthesia in 20 patients who had previously undergone transurethral resection for superficial bladder cancer.

RESULTS

The procedures were carried out at the outpatient clinic with 0.5-2 h post-operative observation. Patient acceptance was very high and complications were minimal. The quality of the biopsies was consistently high and influenced treatment in the majority of the patients.

CONCLUSION

In our department multiple bladder biopsies (mapping) have previously always been performed as a transurethral resection under general or spinal anaesthesia. Operation under intravesical lignocaine anaesthesia with 2 h post-operative observation reduced the costs by 70%.