Cancer is a common disease that affects millions of people across the globe. It is a progressive disease that, if left untreated, will eventually lead to the death of the individual. Cancers are usually named after the area of the body where they originate.
Therefore a cancer of the bladder, for example, originates in the urinary bladder. The urinary bladder is a reservoir used to store urine as it is produced and released in each kidney. Once this bladder becomes full, the individual will feel the urge to urinate so that urine is expelled from the body.
Bladder cancer is one of the more common forms of cancer that affect people across the world. It is more likely to occur in men than it is in women. Cancer, as mentioned above, is a progressive disease. This means that the cancer cells tend to develop, multiply and take over organ systems of the body. As this happens, adjoining organ systems may also become affected. Cancer gradually spreads across the body and affects other parts of the body as well. This leads to the death of the individual.
A radical cystectomy is a procedure used to remove the urinary bladder when it is affected by cancer. A radical cystectomy is used when the cancer has progressed to a fair extent. The term radical is used because the procedure usually involves the removal of other glands or organs from the patient’s body. These other glands or organs are located around the affected bladder. The radical cystectomy for men will involve the removal of the prostate gland whereas the radical cystectomy for women involves the removal of the ovaries, fallopian tubes and uterus.
The radical cystectomy procedure is a surgical procedure that takes a few hours to be performed properly. Radical cystectomy surgery is conducted in an operating theatre with a team of at least three individuals. The radical cystectomy surgery is conducted under complete anesthesia. The patient will be unconscious during the procedure to ensure that pain is not felt by the patient. As with any surgical procedure, there are some radical cystectomy complications that need to be taken into account before the procedure. Most invasive surgeries carry the risk of bleeding as a complication. The development of infection in the surgery site is also a known complication.
Patients undergoing a radical cystectomy procedure will take some days to recover from the surgery and a few weeks to resume normal life.