Is urinary bladder pressure a sensitive indicator of intra-abdominal pressure?

The accuracy of transurethral bladder catheter pressure in reflecting intra-abdominal pressure is well defined in experimental studies and case reports but not in controlled clinical trials.

We compared bladder pressure with insufflator pressure during laparoscopic cholecystectomy in 40 patients. Measurements were made at four pressure levels of the insufflator: 0, 5, 10 and 15 mmHg.

When the insufflator displayed 0, 5, 10, and 15 mmHg (0, 6.8, 13.6 and 20.4 cmH2O), and the mean bladder pressures measured 2.5 +/- 1.4, 7.3 +/- 1.5, 12.9 +/- 1.6 and 19.7 +/- 1.5 cmH2O, respectively. The two measurements correlated well with each other (r = 0.973, P < 0.0001).

We concluded that bladder pressure measured by transurethral catheter was equal to insufflator pressure during laparoscopy, and that this was a valid indicator of intra-abdominal pressure.