According to this observational study, the incidence of CRBD after gynaecological surgery was 64.6%, and the occurrence of moderate or severe CRBD was 41.8%. Age ≥50 years, uterus-related laparoscopic surgery, and lack of additional analgesics might be the independent predictive factors of CRBD after gynaecological surgery.
Age ≥50 year was associated with a higher incidence and severity of CRBD in our study, in contrast to the results of Lim’s study. [4] In gynaecological surgery, more malignant lesions and hysterectomy-related surgery in older people have been reported, with more benign lesions and non-hysterectomy-related surgery in younger individuals. This was consistent with our finding that hysterectomy-related laparoscopic surgery was correlated with a higher incidence and severity of CRBD than was non-hysterectomy-related laparoscopic surgery. Because the uterus is adjacent the bladder, placement of the uterine manipulator is likely to stimulate the bladder during hysterectomy-related laparoscopic surgery. In addition, postoperative loss of peripheral tissue support can easily induce bladder paralysis. Furthermore, postoperative surgical-site pain might aggravate CRBD.
Cervical conization and pelvic reconstructive surgery resulted in a higher incidence and severity of CRBD. This might be related to the surgical procedures, whereby pulling the urethra to expose the vagina and cervix might stimulate the urethra intra-operatively, and the oil gauze/ iodophor gauze filling the cervix/vagina may compress the urethra postoperatively. Our study also showed that additional analgesics administered near the end of the operation and postoperative pain VAS≤3 were associated with a lower incidence and severity of CRBD. Studies have reported that tramadol and non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs are effective for managing CRBD. [6,7] Moreover, patients might confuse surgery-related pain with urinary catheter-related pain.
The mechanism of CRBD is due to the disordered bladder contraction mediated by muscarinic receptors, especially subtype M3 receptors. [8] Various antimuscarinic agents, such as tolterodine, oxybutynin, butylscopolamine, ketamine, tramadol, and dexmedetomidine, have been employed to reduce CRBD with varying degrees of success. [9–15] Nonetheless, these drugs also have some adverse effects, such as dry mouth, sedation, nausea, and vomiting. Thus, we should weigh the advantages and disadvantages of CRBD and adopt a multi-mode comprehensive prevention and control method to manage it. These methods include lubricating oil, local anesthetics, psychological intervention, drug prevention (used for high-risk patients: male gender, urological surgery, or obstetric and gynaecological surgery), and medical treatment (needed for moderate or severe CRBD postoperatively). Previous report suggested that sevoflurane with antimuscarinic effect decrease the incidence of CRBD. [16] As our hospital conventionally used sevoflurane inhalation to maintain anesthesia, the including patients in this study were all used sevoflurane.
This study has some limitations. First, we only evaluated the incidence and severity of CRBD in the PACU, but we did not perform further evaluation in the ward. Besides, the size of urinary catheter is a risk factor of CRBD. In this study, 16 Fr. Urinary Catheter was used in all patients. The high incidence of CRBD in this investigation may be related to the big-sized urinary catheter. Moreover, we did not observe the post-operative urinary tract infection. There was a certain imbalance in the primary data, such as type of surgery, additional analgesics, and occasion of catheterization. For example, there was more laparoscopic surgery and less cervical conization and pelvic reconstructive surgery in our hospital. The patients used additional analgesics and catheterized before anaesthesia were also less.