Intravesical glycosaminoglycans for obstructive feline idiopathic cystitis: a pilot study

Feline idiopathic cystitis is a common condition, often resulting in repeated episodes of life-threatening urethral obstruction. Defective urinary bladder glycosaminoglycans have been implicated as a causal factor. In this report, a commercially available glycosaminoglycan product was infused into the urinary bladders of cats with urethral obstruction from idiopathic cystitis to study the effect on repeated obstruction. In this randomized, blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, the therapeutic protocol was well tolerated with no adverse effects. Whereas no glycosaminoglycan-treated cats (n = 9) developed repeated urethral obstruction during the 7 day follow-up period, 3/7 placebo-treated cats developed repeated obstructions. Approaching statistical significance (P = 0.06), these data suggest that further investigation of this new treatment option is warranted.