During much of my medical career, my understanding of the human bladder was that it was a reservoir for the body’s metabolic waste and that it simply stores #urine until it signals a sense of fullness to motivate volitional voiding. As filling increases tissue distension, intensity of desire to void increases accordingly. Throughout most of the day, the bladder just passively fills. How reassuringly simple! I also understood that bladders, and mostly of females, are very vu

Historically, #cystitis generally was a problem for women, who otherwise were well. They suffered in silence, drank water like fish, and, perhaps, also guzzled K+ citrate and/or cranberry juice, for what they thought they were worth. Antibiotics’ arrival brought simple and convenient “pill-popping,” treatment with most getting symptom relief, while the others continued suffering quietly, so cystitis garnered little medico-scientific interest. Today, cystitis presents very d

Colleagues, I am pleased to inform you that UroPharma has successfully completed another major step on the road to bringing our...

The case for widening the #intravesical approach to #bladder diseases and disorders In the European Association of #Urology 2024 conference, intravesical chemotherapy “took centre stage:” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/eau24-expert-commentary-professor-fufu-zheng-nmibc-postoperative-i6xre?trk=organization_guest_main-feed-card_feed-article-content The case for their use in uro-oncology was made over 60 years ago with the introduction of Mitiomycin C. The value in delivering d

On the day of the UK’s launch of its new #AMR 5-year plan, I offer this account as it is closely linked in attempting to reduce the incidences of CAUTI, and thus, incident AMR risks. Here’s some food for thought Patients and health services suffer the scourge of CAUTI in both hospitals and communities. No approved strategy has made a substantial difference. Various alternatives exist but need unblocking by officialdom. Here’s a selection: 1 - #Catheter cleaning: To prevent

#Epithelia line tissue surfaces that the outside world can directly access, such as skin, sclera, mouth, gut, vagina, #bladder and...

When we find a solution to a problem, naturally we look to the same approach for the next similar challenge. #Antibiotics changed the...

Following on from revelations that we have a complex symbiotic relationship with our #gut microbiome, the discovery that we also have a #urobiome has attracted much attention. There’s no going back to believing the urinary #bladder is sterile. Thank you, Alan #Wolfe. Studies showing differences between normal and diseased bladder urobiomes raise questions about their influences on bladder health and disease aetiology, especially regarding #inflammatory and #pain syndromes,

From Prof. Scott Glickman: A GAG (#glycosaminoglycan) layer within the #bladder, as a nanometres-thick coating, surely would be less than 2ml. Why do companies sell costly GAG-layer supplements as 50ml treatments? I’ve been asking this question for years, but still await a plausible answer, let alone an evidence-based one. #bladderhealth

The distal urethra is a residency for #bacteria, mostly commensals, but sometimes potential uropathogens move in. #Catheterisation hygiene cleans the skin around the urethral meatus but does not remove bacteria residing in the distal urethra. Many people have focused time, effort and money on coatings that are supposed to prevent such bacteria surviving #catheter entry into the #bladder. Such a #coating would need to kill the potential pathogens before they are transferred fr

Homeostatic mechanisms optimise our cellular chemistry. #antibiotics treatments are developed specifically to work in our narrow-band homeostatic chemical milieu to be delivered through blood to #infection sites for intimate combat with #bacterial invaders. With #cystitis, the bacteria are planktonic in urine and attached to urothelial cell membranes, so are too far away to be influenced by that approach. For #antibiotic tablets to have any chance to be effective against cy

From our CMO Professor Scott Glickman Colleagues: In medical and surgical services spanning primary through intensive care, we are dogged by UTI with their acute and long-term complications: treatment failures, recurrences, urosepsis, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and high costs. Despite continuous improvements in antibiotic stewardship, these problems show little sign of abating. Something else must be involved. Antibiotic overuse and misuse shouldn’t be blamed exclusively