Doctors Create First Fully Functioning Substitute Bladder for Cancer Patient : Cancer Victim Loses Bladder, Gets Substitute

Doctors have created a fully functioning substitute bladder for a man whose natural bladder was removed during cancer surgery, it was announced Tuesday.

Warren Harnsberger, 64, of Ardmore, Okla., underwent the experimental two-step operation April 1 at Deaconess Hospital, and his doctors said that he was doing very well.

“I feel just great, and I’m not having any problems with my new bladder,” said Harnsberger at a news conference.

Dr. Charles L. Reynolds Jr. said that the new technique is a modification of the Koch procedure in which a substitute bladder is created out of the distal portion of the patient’s small intestine, or ileum, and serves as a reservoir to hold urine.

The ileum in the new method is connected to the urethra, allowing the patient to empty his bladder normally. In the Koch procedure, the ileum empties through the abdominal wall into a pouch.

“This new substitute bladder procedure could conceivably enable as many as 10,000 Americans, who each year are afflicted with bladder cancer and other diseases of the bladder, to possibly lead a somewhat normal life,” Reynolds said.