Abstract

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• The female patient undergoing cystectomy for invasive cancer of the bladder usually has some form of diversion to the skin. Recently, in the male patient there has been a major shift from cutaneous diversion to functioning orthotopic urethral reservoirs so that the patient can void per urethra. We were intrigued by Bartsch's anatomical studies of the female urethra. With this new information, it seemed feasible to perform the orthotopic urethral diversion in the female. In order to have guidelines in choosing which patients could undergo cystectomy preserving the urethra, we reviewed the pathological findings on female patients undergoing cystectomy at Vancouver General Hospital for 10 years.