Background: Current options to diagnose bladder wall abnormalities in cats are limited to fine needle aspiration and cystoscopic or surgical biopsies. These options can be poorly diagnostic, not readily available, costly, involve general anesthesia, or risk seeding in cases of urothelial carcinoma.
Hypothesis/
Objectives: To describe a minimally invasive technique to perform bladder wall biopsies using ultrasound guidance in female cats.
Animals: Three client-owned female cats with lower urinary tract signs.
Methods: Retrospective case series.
Results: All cats had bladder wall changes noted on ultrasound. Blind sterile urinary catheterization was performed in dorsal recumbency with an 8-French red rubber catheter cut at the tip to the urethral length. The catheter served as a working channel for 5-French endoscopic forceps to sample bladder wall changes using ultrasound guidance. The bladder was deflated when the changes were not in alignment with the forceps in the sagittal plane. The average procedure time was 20 minutes with 3 tissue samples collected per cat. No complications were noted. The procedure provided adequate tissue to obtain a definitive diagnosis in all cases. Histologic findings were consistent with invasive urothelial carcinoma (case 1), multifocal ulcerative cystitis secondary to oxalate crystalluria (case 2), and lymphoplasmacytic cystitis with edema related with a bladder wall cyst ruptured during the procedure (case 3).
Conclusions and Clinical Importance: This case series highlights a minimally invasive procedure to obtain bladder wall biopsies in female cats. This technique may serve as a safe and more readily available option to achieve adequate tissue samples.
