Urinary diversion after cystectomy

Urinary diversions become necessary in cases of a tumor-bearing urinary bladder requiring cystectomy or a nonfunctioning urinary bladder, e.g., due to neurogenic disorders. In order to choose the ideal urinary diversion, long-term function as well as complication rates, quality of life issues, and patient's acceptance become matters of debate. In this regard, orthotopic diversions are usually the first choice. However, there are contraindications for an orthotopic bladder substitute and sometimes the decision has to be made intraoperatively. Therefore, urinary diversions should only be offered by urooncological. centers that are capable of performing different kinds of diversions. For many decades incontinent diversions have been the standard of care and for 20 years different kinds of cutaneous and orthotopic continent reservoirs have been performed. Bladder substitutes by means of tissue engineering, however, are still experimental.