A urostomy is a surgery that involves making a stoma, but this time for your pee. This connects from the bladder to the outside of the abdomen. This allows for pee to leave your body without going through the bladder, and is connected in a pouch.
Your bladder is an organ that is balloon-shaped in your lower abdomen area that will collect and store the urine. This is filtered through kidneys through tubes that are called ureters. When you pee, your bladder muscles push it out through a tube that is called your urethra.
You may need an urostomy if you have bladder cancer. This is part of the removal of the bladder, which is part of the treatment. That’s called a cystectomy. Without bladder, the urine needs to be directed. This is one of the more common surgeries when treating bladder cancer. This might be used for uterine or cervical cancer as well. Those with serious bladder issues that are caused by birth defects or injury and surgery might need this. this is usually permanent and cant’ be revered.
You have two different types. The first is standard or conventional urostomy. This is when the surgeon removes a piece of the small intestine and then uses this to connect the ureters and the outside of the abdomen. The urine then flows through the new path which is called an ileal conduit, and then out the stoma, and it’s collected there.
Then there is the continent urostomy, which is same as the standard one, but the surgeon creates a pouch in order to hold it. The pouch has valves on each end in order to keep the urine from going back into the kidneys and the linking through. You insert a catheter into there a few times a day I order to drain the stoma and get the urine out. You may also have one where the bowel is made into a pouch.
With an urostomy, you will be given general anesthesia, and after that, you will be under. Then, the surgeon makes an incision in the lower abdomen, and they remove a piece of the small intestine, and reattaches them together. Then they connect the ureter tubes outside the abdomen, and this is based on the urostomy. This can last anywhere from 3-5 hours.
Some surgeries may have some different risks include anesthesia problems, infection, blood clots and bleeding, injury or organs and body parts, intestinal blockage, and issues with bowel function.
You may have a longer surgery for about 3-5 hours, and of course you may need to stay in the hospital for a bit. You also may have issues with eating solid foods, and of course be fed nutrients through tubes in the veins. You will definitely have to limit physical activity, and learn to change your ostomy bag.
