Abstract
Urinary bladder carcinoma is the most common malignancy of the uropoietic tract. The initial and essential step in care for patients with this disease is transurethral bladder resection. (TUR).
The goal of TUR is obtaining tissue for histopathological examination, examining the degree of tumour growth and the degree of cell differentiation and removal of tumours which don't infiltrate muscle tissue. Other prognostic factors are evaluated during TUR as well, on the basis of which further therapy or manner of patient monitoring is indicated.
Small tumours can be resected en bloc, tumours larger than 1cm should be resected separately. To correctly examining the degree of tumour growth, adequate resection depth is necessary, sothat it reaches the actual muscle tissue of the bladder.
Modern instruments are used to carry out TUR, including some promising imaging techniques (photodynamic diagnostics, narrow band imaging). A second iteration of TUR in indicated cases increases the efficacy of the therapy and positively affects the patients' prognosis.
In this article the authors give an overview of the established endoscopic methods of bladder tumour treatment and of two experimental techniques.