Living with a Neo Bladder
THERE IS A SHORT SUMMARY ONLY OF THIS TOPIC ON THIS PAGE. HOWEVER, YOU CAN LINK HERE TO AN EXTERNAL WEBSITE WITH MUCH MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC
This is a major operation where a piece of bowel is cut out and the remaining bowel sewn back together again. The
section of bowel that has been removed is opened lengthways and then stitched together to make a new 'bladder'.
This is then joined to the ureters (the pipes that bring urine down from the kidneys to the bladder). This new
bladder, the neobladder, is then connected to the urethra, so that urine is expelled through the normal route.
The nerve supply to the new bladder will have been interrupted and the patient will not get the same sensation of
needing to pass urine as with a normal bladder. The patient will need to learn anew to feel and understand
when it's necessary to pass urine as well as learning a technique to empty the new bladder.
After surgery, the patient will not have complete control of the new bladder. It will be necessary to show the
patient how to do pelvic floor exercises to the muscles. It is quite common to have some incontinence in
days following surgery, especially at night.
Initially, the capacity of the neobladder will be limited and an alarm will need to be set up at night so it can
emptied before it becomes too full. It Will take between 3 and 6 months post surgery for the neobladder to
to become the same size as a normal bladder. It will probably need to be emptied every 1 to 3 hours to start with,
and then gradually the time between toilet visits can be built up.
