Indiana pouch as a source of relief against bladder cancer

The urinary bladder is one of the important organs of the human's body.  It is a hallow organ found in the lower part of the abdomen that stores or holds urine.   The kidneys filter the liquid wastes or gasses from the blood and produces urine.  Each kidney has each tube or ureter where the urine enters the bladder.  The urine excretes the bladder through another tube called the urethra.  Whenever the bladders can no longer function normally as a reservoir for the urine storage, the person is then in a high risk of having a bladder cancer.

With this, it is very important that the patient should undergo series of laboratory tests such as urine tests and biopsy.  This is to determine whether or not the result would be malignant or benign.  If found to be malignant, there is a clear indication that the patient urinary bladder has no longer used and there is a need to removed the same into his body.  The removal of the urinary bladder is made through a surgical method called urinary diversion surgery.

Urinary diversion has been practiced for more than so many years.  This surgical method involves the removal of the bladder.  It is then substituted by an internal pouch called an Indiana pouch.   The said pouch has been discovered way back in the 1980's by the experts in the named of Drs. Mike Mitchell, Randal Rowland, and Richard Bihrle from Indiana University.  This concept or technique is created to help the patients who had been diagnosed to have a bladder cancer.  The purpose of this is to give comfort to the patient by using the internal pouch.

Although the procedure for Indiana pouch urinary takes longer time compared to the other urinary diversions yet, there are lots of advantages it gives to the patient.  Like, the patient will no longer use the external pouch which is more uncomfortable, there is no odor, there is a minimal risk of leakage, lower risks of having kidneys infection and the stoma can be covered by a hypoallergenic bondage to protect it from any bacteria.

There are also disadvantages in using the Indiana pouch such as, there is a need for the patient to catheterize the pouch on the scheduled time, there is a need to empty the pouch to avoid from leakage and within the period of approximately six months the patients needs to wake up every 3-4 hours at night to drain the pouch.

However, the patient has more freedom to move and do his tasks by using the internal pouch.  Compared to external pouch, the internal pouch is most recommended by doctors in terms of urinary diversion to patients suffering from bladder cancer.