TREATMENT.—Under all circumstances where the bladder cannot empty itself, the catheter should be used, and the bladder should be washed out, kept clean, and disinfected. All the suggestions laid down for catheterization and vesical injection in the section on Chronic Cystitis are applicable here and need not be repeated. It is particularly necessary to disinfect the catheter on each occasion before it is introduced. This is best effected by washing the catheter outside and inside with a 5 per cent. solution of carbolic acid in water, and finally washing it outside with clean water, before its introduction. If the bladder is over-distended, it should not, as a rule, be entirely emptied at the first introduction of the catheter, for fear of possible collapse, or, what is more to be dreaded, setting up acute cystitis by suddenly taking off all the internal pressure from the vessels in the walls of the weakened bladder, to which pressure the circulation has become accustomed. If, therefore, the bladder is emptied inadvertently, it is better to inject a few ounces of warm water containing borax in solution (a teaspoonful to the pint), and leave it in until the next catheterization. The quantity left in may be reduced at each sitting. By careful attention to these means most cases of over-distension due to atony or paralysis may be relieved without the intervention of cystitis, or with so little that it does not become a serious factor in the case.
The medical treatment of these cases is less important than the mechanical. Under the latter alone and improvement in general health curable cases often get well. Milk diet is of service, and iron and tonics of considerable value in proper cases. Electricity has not yielded satisfactory results in my hands, and I have not derived the advantage from ergot which is often claimed for it. In cases of atony I think I have seen good results sometimes follow the use of strychnine internally in pretty full doses. The same remedy under the skin acts more promptly and more effectively if it is to do any good at all. In true paralysis of central origin the cure of the bladder depends upon relief of the original disease and local treatment to the bladder.
Hysterical women sometimes feign paralysis in order apparently to secure the sympathy and personal attention of the physician. The application of the actual cautery above the pubes, and entrusting a female nurse with the function of catheterization, is generally effective treatment in these cases.
Hemorrhage from the Bladder.
After all sorts of wounds and injuries to the bladder, and in cases of rupture of the viscus, blood is found in the urine. In certain medical conditions, in scurvy, hemorrhagic eruptive diseases, cases of vicarious menstruation, it has been noticed. In strangury due to cantharides, or in any condition of acute or chronic cystitis with considerable spasm of the bladder, the urine contains more or less blood. Especially is this true if ulceration exist at or near the neck of the bladder, as in tubercular or cancerous cystitis.
In cases of stone in the bladder one of the cardinal symptoms is vesical hæmaturia, while in villous growth often the only symptom of the malady is repeated attacks of more or less profuse bleeding from the bladder coming on unexpectedly, without obvious exciting cause, and showing no regularity in the length of the intervals between the hemorrhages or the intensity or duration of the latter. Outbursts of unexpected hemorrhage are not uncommon in connection with some cases of enlarged prostate and chronic cystitis, while these outbursts are the rule, sooner or later, in most cases of true cancer of the bladder.
The DIAGNOSIS is often very important—that is, in a given case to decide whether the blood comes from the bladder or from the kidney. This may usually be ascertained by a very simple manoeuvre, especially when the flow of blood is not excessive: a silver catheter of short curve is introduced and the urine drawn off, the bladder gently washed several times without moving the catheter, and the shade of red in the wash noted. Now, the bladder being slightly distended with warm water, the point of the catheter is moved somewhat roughly in all directions and made to touch different portions of the wall of the bladder. The water is now allowed to escape, and its deepened color will decide that the hemorrhage has a vesical origin, for manipulations of a silver catheter in a healthy bladder will not occasion a flow of blood. In doubtful cases on two occasions I succeeded in locating the point whence the blood escaped as follows: In one I passed a soft catheter, and washed the bladder until the wash escaped nearly clean; I then withdrew the catheter until the point reached the membranous urethra (the bladder having been left full of clean water), and immediately passed the instrument again and withdrew the contents of the bladder, which were now brilliantly colored, thus locating the bleeding point in the prostatic sinus. In the other case, that of a young man with moderate stricture, whose urine was nearly solid with blood, I noticed that no blood escaped by the meatus between the acts of urination; therefore the bleeding point was posterior to the membranous urethra. Was it in the prostate, the bladder, or the kidney? To decide this I passed a soft catheter and washed the bladder until the wash flowed clear. I then injected some warm water, withdrew the catheter, and caused the patient to empty the bladder. The flow was brilliant with blood. In both these cases I effected a cure by one application of solid nitrate of silver through the urethra to the prostatic sinus.
The TREATMENT of vesical hæmaturia is the treatment of the cause, which, if possible, must be ascertained. For the symptom itself the internal use of iron, turpentine, opium, gallic and tannic acids, are of service. I have not derived any advantage from ergot. Locally, rest in bed, ice over the region of the bladder, and avoidance of straining at urination are generally all that is necessary. I have had good results from injecting the bladder with a solution of alum, gr. i-ij to ounce j of warm water, and cures have been effected by injecting nitrate of silver in solution. It is not well to inject iron in solution, since this substance makes a hard clot, and a soft clot is preferable. When the bladder fills up with a solid clot of blood, the best treatment, according to my experience, is to administer opium freely and diluent drinks. The urine slowly dissolves the clot, which has already arrested the hemorrhage, in most cases by its pressure, and the blood flows away as a dark coffee-ground material, sometimes nearly black. If the catheter is used, the clot broken up or dissolved with pepsin or other substance, and washed or pumped out, a new clot is apt to form at once; and although this treatment is based on high authority, and is often practised successfully, it is a question whether the patient would not in many cases do as well, or better, by being let alone, soothed by opium, until the urine dissolves the clot and nature relieves him.
New Growths in the Bladder.
These belong strictly to the province of surgery, but they fall also under the notice of the physician. Tubercular disease may involve the whole mucous surface or only the neck of the bladder; cancer may infiltrate its walls or grow out as a solid tumor in the vesical cavity; fibrous, sarcomatous, and myomatous new formations, polypi, and cysts, simple and hydatid, have been encountered; villous growths, both benign and cancerous, may occur. These morbid deposits give rise either to recurrent hemorrhage or to varying grades of chronic cystitis. The diagnosis is often difficult, the treatment generally palliative. Much has been done of late in an operative way for the relief of tumors of the bladder, and some brilliant results have been secured by operations through the perineum as well as above the pubes. A tumor of moderate size may be detected by the searcher within the bladder, and often may be grasped in a lithotrite and measured. Such a tumor can generally be plainly felt by conjoined palpation in a thin subject, one hand pressed firmly down behind the pubes and two fingers of the other hand passed into the rectum. Recently, Sir Henry Thompson has advocated vesical exploration for purposes of diagnosis through a median incision in the perineum, as for median lithotomy, and has practised it a number of times with a large measure of success. I have made the same exploration several times, and have encountered and successfully removed one tumor. The expedient is worth bearing in mind for use in any obscure cases. It is probably less objectionable and more likely to yield valuable information than the exploration by introducing the whole hand into the rectum (Simon's method).