Will I be incontinent because of bladder cancer?
Most patients who have bladder cancer are not incontinent. Immediately following a procedure on your bladder, whether it's a transurethral resection or a laser procedure, fluorescent cystoscopy, or intravascular installation, you may have some strong urgency associated with your bladder, because the treatments are irritating to the bladder, and your bladder is not going to be as compliant. The bladder is not going to be able to hold as much urine, so there may be a little bit more urgency, and you may have some incontinent episodes in that very immediate post-treatment or post-operative period. Generally, incontinence is not a problem with either bladder cancer or the treatments for bladder cancer. With the newer bladder replacement surgical strategies, where a new bladder is essentially created by sewing a portion of the small intestine together and then bringing it down into the pelvis, incontinence is a problem because the patient essentially has to learn how to urinate all over again. The bowel was not made to hold urine; the bowel does not have the neural pathway to send a message to the brain up through the spinal cord, to let you know that it's full. It is a whole new set of sensations that have to be learned, and a new whole new set of mechanistic approaches to voiding have to be taught to those patients.
