November Case #4 Discussion

The longitudinal and transverse images of the bladder indicate a foreign body. In this case, the ruptured end of a suprapubic catheter. In the transverse view you see the end of the tubing, but in the longitudinal view you can make out the balloon still inflated.

Urology was consulted and a new suprapubic catheter was placed. The old one was later removed with cystoscopy and the end was noted to have been cut cleanly off.

This case illustrates an important point: You must always image any three dimensional structure in two planes. In this case it helped to identify that the suprapubic catheter was not only still in the patient's bladder, but that the balloon was still at least partially inflated.