Primary congenital bladder diverticula in boys

Three male patients ranging in age at diagnosis from eight to seventeen years were found to have presumed primary congenital bladder diverticula. All 3 patients had a solitary documented urinary tract infection (Staphylococcus 2, Escherichia coli 1), 1 patient presented with gross hematuria, and in 1 patient the diverticulum was an incidental finding. In all cases, there was no radiologic evidence on voiding cystourethrography of physiologic or anatomic ureteral or bladder outlet obstruction. In a nine-year-old boy there was ipsilateral renal agenesis, an intra-abdominal undescended testis, and an atretic ureter arising from the diverticulum. The older boy had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. If the diverticulum is enlarging, compromises the ureterovesical valve mechanism, or by virtue of incomplete bladder emptying is believed to promote urinary tract infection, it should be removed. A surgically conservative course is followed in the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome because of the bleeding tendency and tissue abnormalities.