Outpatient photodynamic-guided diagnosis of carcinoma in situ with flexible cystoscopy: an alternative to conventional inpatient photodynamic-guided bladder biopsies in the operating theatre?

Objective: The aim of this prospective open comparative study was to establish whether conventional photodynamic-guided bladder biopsies using general anaesthesia and rigid resectoscopes (inpatient) can be replaced with less traumatic flexible cystoscopy in non-sedated patients (outpatient), without compromising the diagnosis of carcinoma in situ (CIS). Materials and methods: Thirty-one patients were included. After BCG instillation for CIS, bladder biopsies were obtained using photodynamic-guided flexible cystoscopy. Two weeks later, patients underwent the conventional inpatient procedure. An external pathologist reviewed the biopsy samples. Pain and quality of life (QoL) symptom score were recorded. Results: Post-BCG biopsies showed only CIS in 10 patients; high-grade Ta or T1 tumour in three patients, who were referred for cystectomy; and normal or low-grade tumour tissue in 18 patients. There was a high agreement of identification of high-grade disease in biopsies and cytology using the two methods (κ = 0.93, 95% confidence interval 0.8–1.0). The outpatient procedure identified four high-grade patients diagnosed as ‘normal/low-grade’ in the inpatient procedure. The opposite was observed in two patients. Quality of biopsies did not differ between the two procedures. Pain scores for outpatients were low, and median QoL symptom score was significantly lower than for inpatients (24 vs 33, p = 0.02). Hospital length of stay was significantly longer for inpatients. Conclusions: Outpatient photodynamic-guided flexible cystoscopy is less traumatic than the conventional inpatient procedure in the diagnosis of CIS. It is safe and cost-effective, and may be an alternative to conventional inpatient biopsy procedures in patients with malignant urine cytology and normal white-light cystoscopy.