[Guest]

About 3 years ago, my father, 60 years old, had bladder damage caused by external-beam radiation done to treat prostate cancer He was cancer-free, and still is, thank God. He was not a candidate for an artificial urinary sphincter because of the excess scar tissue caused by radiation. So, his urologic surgeon did an umbilical appendicovesicostomy, a relatively new procedure. My father's "Mitrofanoff Stoma" was documented in the August 1999 issue of Contemporary Urology. The surgeon now wants to rebuild the stoma, which has shut-down over the past 2 years. My father is now using a superpubic catheter to compensate. He says he's doing fine with the catheter and doesn't want to edure more surgery again. His surgeon says that if he continues using the catheter for too long, there is a risk of developing bladder cancer because he is inserting a foreign object into his bladder. Question: How long can he go on using the catheter before he has to get surgery? Also, what are his options, other than this type of surgery, which only seems to be a temporary solution, since the stoma seems to shut-down over time?
Please help, Thanks,

[Guest]

Your surgeon is correct re long-term catheter drainage and bladder cancer.
Exactly how long it takes to develop and precisely who (a small percentage) will get the disease is an unknown. Smoking seems to accelerate the process in my experience. It is probably more than five years of such drainage, however.
There are other options, but the radiation often limits them due to a lack of healthy tissue.
If you are not happy with the guidance you are getting, seeing an expert at a major medical school/clinic should be fruitful.

[quote]
About 3 years ago, my father, 60 years old, had bladder damage caused by external-beam radiation done to treat prostate cancer. He was cancer-free, and still is, thank God... [/quote]