[Emphysematous cystitis complicating non-conservative total hysterectomy for ovarian cancer]

The authors report a case of emphysematous cystitis in a 50-year-old woman treated by corticosteroids, occurring 1 month after hysterectomy for locally advanced ovarian cancer. Although the patient presented a vesico-vaginal fistula, the presence of air in the bladder wall and only in the bladder lumen, confirmed the diagnosis of emphysematous cystitis. Despite intensive care and surgery with colostomy and Mikulicz drainage associated with urinary diversion (transparietal bladder catheter on one side and cutaneous ureterostomy on the other side), the patient died on day 10 in a context of sepsis. The circumstances of discovery, the various clinical forms and the radiological features of emphysematous cystitis described in the literature are reviewed together with the modalities of management.