[Morphometric study of low compliant bladder]

Low compliant bladder is an important cause of detrusor dysfunction, although its cause is unknown. Two groups of patients who developed low compliant bladder have been studied by the morphometric technique. One group consisted of patients with neurogenic low compliant bladder, and the other group consisted of patients with non-neurogenic low compliant bladder. Control materials were obtained from postmortal samples offered from the department of anatomy. Bladder wall samples were obtained during bladder augmentation surgery. Morphometric computer analysis was used to measure the proportions of connective tissue and muscle layer in the bladder wall samples. In the non-neurogenic group, there was a significant increase in connective tissue and a marked decrease in muscle layer proportion than the control group. On the other hand, there was a mild increase in connective tissue, but no decrease in muscle layer proportion was observed in patients with neurogenic low compliant bladder. Comparison of the results obtained from the two groups suggested that low bladder compliance in neurogenic patients is mainly caused by functional alteration of the bladder wall, whereas that in non-neurogenic patients is caused by an organic change of the bladder wall.