Tag Archives: hematuria

Tips

Thoughts On Traumatic Hematuria: Part 2

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Yesterday, I discussed blood in the urine from a urethra. As I mentioned, there is typically not much from that particular injury. Today, I’ll dig into the three causes of real hematuria.

All of these tubes show gross hematuria except the one on the right.

  • Bladder injury. This can occur with either blunt or penetrating injury. The degree of hematuria is variable with stabs or gunshots, but tends to be much darker in blunt injury. This happens because the size of the bladder injury tends to be greater with blunt force. The bladder injury is not necessarily full-thickness with blunt trauma. It may just be some wall contusion and underlying mucosal injury. But frequently, with seat belt injury and/or A-P compression injuries to the pelvis (“open book”), the injury is full thickness.
    • Tip: If less than 50cc of very dark urine flow from the catheter upon insertion, it is likely that your patient has an intraperitoneal bladder rupture!
  • Ureteral injury. This injury is very rare. The most common mechanism is penetrating, but this structure is so small and deep that it seldom gets hit by naything. Patients with multiple lumbar transverse process fractures will occasionally have a small amount of hematuria, probably from a minor contusion. More often than not, the hematuria is microscopic, so we should never know about it.
  • Kidney injury. The most important fact regarding renal injury is that the degree of injury has no correlation with the amount of hematuria. The most devastating injury, a devascularized kidney, frequently has little if any gross hematuria. And conversely, a very minor contusion can produce very red urine.

So what about diagnosis? It’s easy! If you see gross hematuria, insert a foley catheter (if not already done) and order a CT of the abdomen/pelvis with contrast, as well as a CT cystogram. The latter must not be done using passive filling of the bladder with a clamped catheter. Contrast must be infused into the bladder under pressure to ensure a bladder injury can be identified.

CT scan is an excellent tool for defining injuries to kidney, ureter, and bladder, and will identify extravasation into specific places and allow grading. Specific management will be the topic of future posts.

Tips

Thoughts On Traumatic Hematuria: Part 1

Leave a comment

I’ve seen a number of patients recently with bloody urine, and that is prompting me to provide some (written) clarity to others who need to manage this clinical problem. I’ll try to keep it organized!

There are two kinds of hematuria in trauma: blood that you can see with the naked eye, and…

Okay, so there’s only one. Trauma professionals do not care about microscopic hematuria. It does not change clinical management. Sure, your patient might have a renal contusion, but you won’t do anything about that. Or, he/she might have an infarcting kidney. And you can’t do anything about that. If you order a urinalysis, you might see a few RBCs. Don’t let this lead you down the path of looking for a source. You’ll end up ordering lots of tests and additional imaging, and generally will have nothing to show for it at the end. It’s not your job to spend good money on the very rare chance of finding something clinically significant.

Both of these specimens have blood in them. You can’t see it on the left, so don’t go looking for it with a microscope.

There are four sources of blood in the urine.

1. The first source does not generally cause hematuria, but can occasionally cause a few visible wisps of blood. That source is a urethral injury. The textbook teaching, and it’s good advice, is to look at the urethral meatus in your trauma patient, especially if you are contemplating insertion of a urinary catheter. If you see a few drops of blood, pause to consider. Sometimes, the blood is no longer visible, but might be present as a few well-placed drops on the patient’s underwear. So have a look at that, too, especially in patients with high risk injuries such as A-P compression pelvic fractures (think, lots of ramus fractures or pubic diastasis).

If you didn’t notice it and inserted the catheter anyway, you might see a few wisps of blood in the tubing as you place it. More often than not, this is just run of the mill irritation of the mucosa by the catheter, but always keep the possibility of an injury in mind.

Tomorrow, I’ll discuss the remaining three sources, and what to do about them.

Related posts:

Abdomen

Thoughts On Traumatic Hematuria: Part 2

Leave a comment

Yesterday, I discussed blood in the urine from a urethra. As I mentioned, there is typically not much from that particular injury. Today, I’ll dig into the three causes of real hematuria.

All of these tubes show gross hematuria except the one on the right.

  • Bladder injury. This can occur with either blunt or penetrating injury. The degree of hematuria is variable with stabs or gunshots, but tends to be much darker in blunt injury. This happens because the size of the bladder injury tends to be greater with blunt force. The bladder injury is not necessarily full-thickness with blunt trauma. It may just be some wall contusion and underlying mucosal injury. But frequently, with seat belt injury and/or A-P compression injuries to the pelvis (“open book”), the injury is full thickness.
    • Tip: If less than 50cc of very dark urine flow from the catheter upon insertion, it is likely that your patient has an intraperitoneal bladder rupture!
  • Ureteral injury. This injury is very rare. The most common mechanism is penetrating, but this structure is so small and deep that it seldom gets hit by naything. Patients with multiple lumbar transverse process fractures will occasionally have a small amount of hematuria, probably from a minor contusion. More often than not, the hematuria is microscopic, so we should never know about it.
  • Kidney injury. The most important fact regarding renal injury is that the degree of injury has no correlation with the amount of hematuria. The most devastating injury, a devascularized kidney, frequently has little if any gross hematuria. And conversely, a very minor contusion can produce very red urine.

So what about diagnosis? It’s easy! If you see gross hematuria, insert a foley catheter (if not already done) and order a CT of the abdomen/pelvis with contrast, as well as a CT cystogram. The latter must not be done using passive filling of the bladder with a clamped catheter. Contrast must be infused into the bladder under pressure to ensure a bladder injury can be identified.

CT scan is an excellent tool for defining injuries to kidney, ureter, and bladder, and will identify extravasation into specific places and allow grading. Specific management will be the topic of future posts.

Tips

Thoughts On Traumatic Hematuria: Part 1

Leave a comment

I’ve seen a number of patients recently with bloody urine, and that is prompting me to provide some (written) clarity to others who need to manage this clinical problem. I’ll try to keep it organized!

There are two kinds of hematuria in trauma: blood that you can see with the naked eye, and…

Okay, so there’s only one. Trauma professionals do not care about microscopic hematuria. It does not change clinical management. Sure, your patient might have a renal contusion, but you won’t do anything about that. Or, he/she might have an infarcting kidney. And you can’t do anything about that. If you order a urinalysis, you might see a few RBCs. Don’t let this lead you down the path of looking for a source. You’ll end up ordering lots of tests and additional imaging, and generally will have nothing to show for it at the end. It’s not your job to spend good money on the very rare chance of finding something clinically significant.

Both of these specimens have blood in them. You can’t see it on the left, so don’t go looking for it with a microscope.

There are four sources of blood in the urine.

1. The first source does not generally cause hematuria, but can occasionally cause a few visible wisps of blood. That source is a urethral injury. The textbook teaching, and it’s good advice, is to look at the urethral meatus in your trauma patient, especially if you are contemplating insertion of a urinary catheter. If you see a few drops of blood, pause to consider. Sometimes, the blood is no longer visible, but might be present as a few well-placed drops on the patient’s underwear. So have a look at that, too, especially in patients with high risk injuries such as A-P compression pelvic fractures (think, lots of ramus fractures or pubic diastasis).

If you didn’t notice it and inserted the catheter anyway, you might see a few wisps of blood in the tubing as you place it. More often than not, this is just run of the mill irritation of the mucosa by the catheter, but always keep the possibility of an injury in mind.

Tomorrow, I’ll discuss the remaining three sources, and what to do about them.

Related posts:

General

Practical Tip: Evaluation of Hematuria in Blunt Trauma

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Bloody urine is a relatively uncommon finding in blunt trauma patients. Hematuria ranges from microscopic to gross. Microscopic means blood that can only be seen with a microscope, and gross means visible to the naked eye. In trauma, we only care about gross hematuria, which ranges from the faintest of pink to the deepest red.

In the picture above gross hematuria is present in all tubes but the far right one. Those four will need further evaluation.

In trauma, gross hematuria is a result of an injury to kidney, ureter or bladder. Blunt injury to the ureter is so rare it’s reportable, so you can pretty much forget that one unless the mechanism is extreme. So you really just need to focus on kidney and bladder.

Any victim of blunt trauma that presents with visible hematuria needs to be evaluated by CT of the abdomen and pelvis with an added CT cystogram. Standard CT technique is done without a urinary catheter, or with the catheter clamped. This is not acceptable for hematuria evaluation, as only 50% of bladder injuries show up with this technique.

CT cystogram is an add-on to the standard CT, and consists of the administration of contrast into the bladder which is then kept under pressure while the scan is performed. Delayed slices through the pelvis after the bladder is depressurized and emptied is routine. Nearly 100% of bladder injuries are detected using this technique.

If the CT shows a renal laceration or hematoma, the patient should be admitted and managed according to your solid organ injury protocol. Kidney injuries fare better that livers and spleens, and only rarely require surgery. If no kidney or bladder injury is seen, the default diagnosis of a renal contusion is the culprit. No treatment is needed, and the patient can be discharged if no other injuries are present. The blood will clear over a few days, but may disappear and reappear a few times in the process. Be sure to warn the patient that this may occur, or you may receive some surprise phone calls. The patient can followup with their primary care physician in a week or two.

The majority of these injuries do not require urologic consultation. Complex injuries with extravasation of urine out of the kidney, or injuries to the collecting system should be referred to a urologist, however.