Long-term bladder drainage: blessing or disaster in disguise
Reviewed by Arun K Sharma

Chronic bladder dysfunction occurs in many neurologic disorders e.g. multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, etc. Suprapubic catheters (SPC) are inserted every day and every urology department has a pool of ‘difficult’ patients who keep coming back. This paper compares SPCs with other modalities such as permanent urethral catheters, intermittent catheters, etc. This is a scoping study to assess the area of SPC and the extent of research evidence. A search of electronic databases was performed. Three hundred and ninety-four papers were identified with 26 being selected for further analysis. Various complications between SPC and urethral catheters were studied. Regarding urothelial cancer after SPC, no prospective study was found but one retrospective study indicated a 0.39% incidence of bladder cancer after SPC. The purpose of this scoping review is to stimulate research activity into the long-term effects of SPC.

Long-term bladder drainage: suprapubic catheter versus other methods: a scoping review.
Hunter KF, Bharmal A , Moore KN.
NEUROUROLOGY AND URODYNAMICS
2013;32(7):944-51.