Artificial urinary bladder

Abstract: An implantable urinary control apparatus for controlling the flow of urine from the bladder including a pump connected to the bladder for pumping urine out of the bladder and into a natural or artificial channel so that it can be discharged from the body. The apparatus also includes a sensor connected to the natural or to an artificial urinary bladder for detecting the pressure in the bladder as it fills with urine, and an alarm unit connected to the sensor for giving warning that the bladder is filling with urine when the sensor detects the pressure caused by urine in the bladder. A method of controlling the flow of urine from the bladder including implanting and connecting a pump to the bladder and activating the pump to pump urine from the bladder when the bladder is filling with urine. The method also includes implanting a sensor in the body for detecting the pressure in the bladder as it fills with urine, and implanting and connecting an alarm unit to the sensor so that the alarm unit will give warning that the bladder is filling with urine when the sensor detects the pressure caused by urine in the bladder.

Abstract: Transposition of intestinal segments is frequently used for bladder reconstruction. Following transposition, bowel segments continue to produce mucus and a correlation between excessive mucus production and complications such as urinary tract infection or catheter blockage has been observed for a long time. However, no information is currently available on the change of mucin expression and glycosylation under these abnormal conditions. In this study, the variable number tandem repeat region and the irregular repeat domain of human MUC2 were isolated as two glycopeptide populations after reduction and trypsin digestion followed by gel chromatography from urine of patients transposed with urinary bladders. After alkaline borohydride treatment, the oligosaccharides released from the whole MUC2 mucin and the two glycosylated domains were investigated by nanoESI Q-TOF MS/MS (electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry). More than 60 different glycans were identified, mainly based on sialylated core 3 structures. Some core 1, 2 and 4 oligosaccharides were also found. Most of the structures were acidic with NeuAc residues mainly alpha2-6 linked to the N-acetylgalactosaminitol and sulphate residues exclusively 3-linked to galactose. No expression of blood group A and B or Sda/Cad determinants was observed. Similar patterns of glycosylation were found in the tandem repeat region and the irregular repeat domain and the level of expression of the major oligosaccharides were in the same order of magnitude. The most interesting feature of this study was that sialyl-Tn antigen, which is considered as a tumour antigen, was the oligosaccharide most highly expressed. This result suggests that mucins from intestinal transposed segments are abnormally glycosylated.

Abstract: Complete bladder replacement with prosthetic materials was first tried in 1960, when Bogash, Kohler, and Scott reported on their results.3 Their prosthesis was implanted in 8 dogs. The ureters were connected to a sort of artificial conduit made out of silicone, which was then connected to the abdominal wall of the animal. Unfortunately, no animal survived longer than 25 days; most of them developed hydronephrosis.