0077 - Chinese Doctor Regenerates Bladder. Chief surgeon Li Jiangchun of th...Back

Chinese Doctor Regenerates Bladder. Chief surgeon Li Jiangchun of the Heilongjiang Provincial Forestry General Hospital and his assistants have performed 127 bladder regeneration operations since 1979. The success rate reached 86 percent. Ordinarily, the urethra of a patient whose bladder has been removed must discharge into a bag outside the body, much to the inconvenience of the patient. In the present operation, the surgeons put a 3-layer fist sized elastic capsule into the pelvic cavity as a support. The capsule is then filled with 160-180 milliliter physiological saline, with an inverted V shaped cavity catheter attached behind. Twelve or 14 days later, when a coat of membranous tissue has grown around the capsule forming a bladder, the capsule is loosened, drained and pulled out from the urethra. The membrane develops into a complete regenerated bladder within half a year. Thirty hospitals in China are doing such bladder regeneration operations.