Rupture of urinary bladder secondary to bladder carcinoma with extensive abdominal gangrene: A case report

INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE: Spontaneous rupture of the urinary bladder is rare but potentially severe. It is unusually related to bladder tumours. The morbidity and mortality rate are very high in these groups of patients. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case of a 62-year-old man who was known to have a bladder tumour who presented with extensive gangrene of the anterior abdominal wall. Imaging showed an extraperitoneal urinoma extended to the anterior abdominal wall secondary to a bladder rupture with posterior bladder wall thickening suggesting a bladder tumour. After optimization of the patient’s condition, urinoma drainage and upper urinary tract drainage by bilateral nephrostomy, excision of all necrotic tissues and a biopsy of the bladder lesion was performed. At a multidisciplinary meeting, we opted for a transurethral resection of the bladder followed by palliative chemotherapy considering that the tumour was locally advanced and depending on the disease course and patient’s condition. CLINICAL DISCUSSION: Gangrene secondary to urinary bladder rupture caused by transitional cell carcinomas is a very rare disease with poor oncological and infectious prognoses. For these reasons, treatment is often palliative. CONCLUSION: Urinary bladder rupture secondary to bladder carcinoma could rarely be complicated with abdominal gangrene. No standardized treatment is recommended seeing the extreme rarity of this disease and management should be discussed on a case-by-case basis.