Traumatic urinary bladder injuries in small animals

Traumatic urinary bladder injuries in the recent times are considered to be of great importance in veterinary medicine, as they can lead to significant morbidity and subsequent mortality when diagnosed late or left untreated. However, the true incidence rates, absolute treatment recommendations and prognoses of lower urinary tract traumas are not available in literatures as the majority of specific information regarding lower urinary tract injuries in small animals exist as isolated case reports or small case series. Urologists may only encounter traumatic bladder injuries in their practice, because of the current modernization and human activities leading to increase in occurrence of the injuries. This paper reviews mainly the literatures and reports on the causes, clinical signs, diagnosis and management of traumatic urinary bladder injuries (blunt, penetrating and iatrogenic bladder traumas) to assist clinicians in this specialty. History, presenting clinical signs and laboratory evaluations are the diagnostic tools of bladder injuries and in predicting prognosis when treated. Despite presentation with nonspecific signs, haematuria and abdominal tenderness are the most common clinical signs of bladder rupture in animals. Early diagnosis and repair of bladder rupture offers good prognosis. Management of these conditions may require either solely medical or surgical intervention, while others will require a combined management intervention.