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Cystoscopy
Make it clearer
A cystoscopy is a test to look inside the lower urinary tract. With a thin lighted tube, the cystoscope, you can see the urethra, which is the channel urine comes out through, the sphincter that closes it, the prostate, the bladder, and the ureteral orifices, the openings where the urine coming down from the kidneys enters. It is used mainly to make a diagnosis.
The cystoscope can be rigid or flexible. You travel the path urine takes on the way out, only backward: first the urethra and then the bladder. Once inside, the trigone comes into view, a triangular area between the urethral outlet and the ureteral orifices.
One of the most common reasons to send someone to a urologist is hematuria, that is, blood in the urine. A cystoscopy can be done in the office or in the operating room under general anesthesia.
In brief
Cystoscopy shows the urethra, the urethral sphincter, the prostate, the bladder, and the ureteral orifices; it is mainly diagnostic.
The cystoscope, rigid or flexible, passes first through the urethra and in the bladder reveals the trigone, the triangular area between the urethral outlet and the ureteral orifices.
The path urine takes on the way out, traveled backward.
Hematuria is one of the most common reasons for referral to a urologist; cystoscopy is done in the office or in the operating room under general anesthesia.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingCystoscopy, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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