Can I live without my bladder?
The answer is yes. Bladder removal, or cystectomy, has been performed for many years. Initially, when the bladder was removed, surgeons were able to create any kind of reservoirs or conduits out of other parts of the small intestine. Once the bladder was removed, the uritals were simply plugged into the coli, into the sigmoid portion of the colon, so that the urine just went in there and mixed with the stool. It is a difficult situation - not only was it difficult to hold that, because now your stool and urine are mix all together, but that when you actually defecated, you had to eliminate your urine content as well. Because of the constant contamination, bacteria had open access to the kidneys that was complicated by recurring and severe kidney infections and urinary tract infections. In 1952, the first true bladder urinary diversion was done at Washington University in St. Louis, where I trained, and a piece of the small intestine was removed isolated, and the uritals were sewn in through the small intestine. That small intestine was then closed on one end that was inside the body, and the other end was then brought out to the patient's lower abdomen, or through the side of the lower abdomen, and applicants applied a bag to it. This was the so called ilio conduit, which was the mainstay and goal standard - urinary diversion, up until the mid to late 1990's, when newer procedures were being perfected and being accepted, and being done in a broad range of patients.
