How to do urethroscopy?

Urethrascopy is a method of examination used to diagnose urological diseases. Urethrascopy is more or less painful and damaging to the patient. It will cause some inflammatory reactions such as congestion and edema, but it can usually be recovered after rest. Urethrascopy is mainly used for bladder and urethra endoscopy of patients with urinary tract infection, but it is not recommended for patients with urethral stenosis, as urethrascopy in patients with urethral stenosis may cause perforation.

How to do urethroscopy?

First of all, it should be made clear that urethroscopy is generally performed through cystoscopy. The endoscope is inserted into the bladder through the external urethral opening to observe whether there are new growths, inflammatory edema, and other lesions in the urethral mucosa. Generally, no special preparation is required before the operation. If the patient is holding back urine, he/she needs to urinate once before the operation. The vulva must be thoroughly disinfected before the cystoscope is inserted to avoid endoscopic infection. After the operation, the patient should be advised to drink more water and urinate more frequently. The above content is for reference only. Please refer to the doctor's face-to-face consultation for specific medication and treatment instructions.

Contraindications to urethroscopy include:

(1) Urethral stenosis: The main cause of urethral perforation is failure to consider the possibility of urethral stenosis before the examination and continued insertion with force when resistance is encountered.

(2) Bladder capacity is less than 50 ml: If the bladder capacity is not known in advance, bladder perforation often occurs during endoscopy. If the bladder capacity is too small, even if the endoscope does not cause damage, the observation effect is often unsatisfactory.

(3) Do not repeat the examination within one week: Since the first examination often causes some congestion, edema and inflammatory reactions, repeating the examination before the above changes have disappeared will not only cause unnecessary pain to the patient, but the examination results will also be difficult to reflect the actual situation.

(4) In principle, no examination is performed during the acute inflammatory phase.

(5) Patients with systemic bleeding diseases should avoid cystourethroscopy and treatment.

What will I feel after a urethroscopy?

After the examination, the patient may have soreness in the urethra and may have burning discomfort for 48 hours, and the urine will be bloody, which usually disappears in half a day to a day.

Drinking plenty of fluids will relieve pain and blood in the urine.

Notify your doctor if pain persists, fever develops, or blood in the urine is present.