Intravesical ultrasound for staging bladder tumours

Intravesical ultrasonic scanning was performed in 74 patients with 84 bladder tumours. Two tumours located, respectively, at the neck and in the dome of the bladder could not be visualized. In the other 82 the degree of infiltration was ultrasonically assessable. The tumours could be assigned to three categories: superficial, noninfiltrating (Ta to T1), infiltrating the bladder wall (T2 to T3a) and infiltrating extravesically (T3b to T4). The stage was correctly determined with intravesical ultrasound in 77 (94%) of the 82 tumours. The method is particularly valuable for differentiating between superficial, noninfiltrating and more advanced growths.