The urological evaluation and management of patients with myelodysplasia.

The urological evaluation and results of management of 183 myelodysplastic patients are presented. Our management protocol stresses upper tract and infection status surveillance during the early childhood years, and a clean intermittent catheterisation programme with pharmacological manipulation of detrusor and sphincter function as the optimal later management. Continence failures are few and are manageable by sphincter prosthetic surgery or bladder augmentation. Urodynamic results are valuable in children with difficult incontinence or poor upper tracts. The intermittent catheterisation programme reduces the incidence of symptomatic urinary infections in these patients, but the incidence of asymptomatic bacteriuria is high. The adverse results of supravesical diversion in myelodysplastic children rarely justify its use.