Cystoscopy

What is a cystoscopy?

A cystoscopy is where your surgeon looks inside your bladder with a very tiny camera. They can see what it looks like and sometimes see if there is something wrong in your bladder.

They can also give you some treatments for your bladder to help you with your problems. They can take away a bit of abnormal tissue if they find it or give you medicines into your bladder.

What happens before?

Before you come in your surgeon may give you some antibiotics to take and you will also be asked not to eat any food for 6 hours before you come in.

It is important to take any medicine that you have been asked to as antibiotics protect you from getting an infection in your wee and feeling poorly.

It is important not to eat beforehand as a lot of people are sick going to sleep (having a general anaesthetic) and this can make you very poorly and may mean you have to stay in hospital for longer. But do not worry. You might feel a bit hungry but you can still drink water right up until you have to go to sleep for your cystoscopy.

What happens when we get to hospital?

When you get to hospital, you will meet the nurses who will look after you before and after your cystoscopy. They will ask you some questions and weigh you. They look after people having cystoscopies (and other operations) every day. You can tell them if you are nervous and they will help.

They will give you a gown to get changed into. They will ask you to take your underpants off, but if you feel really uncomfortable without your pants and socks on you can keep them on.

You can also bring a toy or teddy that you love to come with you. Your doctors and nurses will look after them too.

The nurses will also put some magic cream on the backs of your hands, this makes the skin numb so when you have a cannula when you are asleep it does not hurt and we can give you medicine.

You will meet your surgeon (this might be the one you met when you came to clinic) who will talk through what will happen and you can sign the consent form if you want to.

You will also meet the Anaesthetist, this is a special doctor who gives you a general anesthetic, this means they help you fall asleep whilst you have your cystoscopy. They make sure you go to sleep, stay asleep and wake up afterwards. They make sure you do not have any pain too.

You will then meet one of our theatre escorts. They all wear blue t-shirts and they will take you down to the operating theatres (where we do your cystoscopy). They will help you not be nervous. Do not worry about being alone, you can bring your toy with you and your grown-up (parent or carer or sibling) that you have come with. Your grown-up will stay with you until you are fast asleep.

What happens during the cystoscopy?

Once you are asleep the surgeon looks in your bladder by doing the cystoscopy. They have to put some water in your bladder so they can see what is going on. They keep you warm and covered up and there are a team of doctors and nurses keeping you safe whilst you are asleep.

They may do some treatments or just be having a look. They can take photos of your bladder if they need to and these go in your notes.

Sometimes they may put 1 or 2 tubes in (called supra-pubic lines or catheters), these are very small tubes that means we can put dye into your bladder for special X-rays or measure the pressure in your bladder. They go into your tummy, sometimes they can leave a tube in your urethra (the hole your wee comes out from).

You will know before if you are going to have these things.

When the cystoscopy is finished they start to wake you up, the team or doctors and nurses will also make sure that you are clean and dry (sometimes we all get a bit wet doing a cystoscopy) and that you have any things that you brought down to theatre with you (glasses, hearing aids, teddy bear, slippers and so on).

What happens afterwards?

Whilst you are still sleepy we take you on your bed to our recovery area, which we call the post-anaesthetic care unit (PACU). Here the PACU nurses make sure you are waking up, they also make sure you are not in any pain. They also call your grown-up to come to be with you whilst you are waking up.

You can have a drink if you are thirsty when you wake up here and also any medicines you need.

They will then take you, on your bed, back up to TAU (where you were before you came for your cystoscopy).

Here the nurses that you met before will look after you. They will give you something to eat and drink and any medicines you need. They will also make sure you can have a wee.

Your first wee may sting a bit, but that soon goes away. It is important that you keep drinking and weeing after your cystoscopy. Your first few wees will probably be pink too. Your bladder is very delicate and often bleeds a little bit just from the doctor having a look, it can be very red sometimes if you have had a treatment in your bladder.

Sometimes you will notice something slimey in your wee or when you wipe-like clear snot. This is a numbing gel that the surgeon puts in your urethra before and after your cystoscopy so that your wee does not sting too much afterwards.

Your surgeon might come and see you and your family afterwards and tell you what they have found.

They will give you medicine to take at home after your cystoscopy. These can be antibiotics or medicine to relax your bladder. It is important that you take these. If you do not like the taste, you may need to have something to take the taste away (like squash).

They will arrange to see you in outpatients clinic in a few weeks time after you have recovered to see how things are and if you need any more treatments.

After your cystoscopy your surgeon may have arranged for you to have some special tests (urodynamics or an ultra sound scan) and you will have these on the same day.

If you have eaten and drank and are weeing well the nurses let you go home with any new medicines you need.