Traumatic, Inflammatory, Neoplastic, and Miscellaneous Lesions of the Bladder

The urinary bladder is the body’s reservoir for urine. It is a muscular bag lined with a mucous membrane and is located in the bony pelvis below a layer of peritoneum. Occupying the anterior half of the pelvis, it is bounded by the symphysis pubis and the diverging walls of the pelvis ventrally and at its sides. The bladder is flattened Open image in new window Fig. 6.1 MRI of the bladder in a female: heavily T2-weighted sagittal image; scan performed with fast spin-echo technique. The relationship of the bladder to adjacent organs is shown. B, bladder; R, rectum; U, uterus superiorly when empty, becomes globular with urine filling, and has a normal capacity of up to 500ml. It is dorsal and cephalad to the pubis, being separated from it by the retropubic space of Retziusl. The urinary bladder does not assume this pelvic position until maturity. It is an abdominal organ in infants and children (Caffey 1972). In the male, the rectum is dorsal and caudal to the urinary bladder. The seminal vesicles and the ampulla of the ductus deferens are embedded in endopelvic fascia caudally and dorsally against the fundus of the bladder. In the female, the uterus and vagina lie between the rectum and the bladder (Fig. 6.1). Depending on the state of distention of the bladder, the nongravid uterus and cervix will be dorsal and/or cephalad to the bladder. The vagina is caudal and posterior, its anterior wall loosely attached to the fundus of the bladder (Woodburne 1976; Pansky 1979).