The primary goal of bladder management at the Shepherd Center had been to maintain a catheter-free state with either an intermittent catheterization program (ICP) or low pressure reflex voiding into an external collector. The purpose of this article is to review the bladder management of the patients admitted to our facility who were followed from 1982 through 2002 and whose follow-up data was recorded in the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC) database. At each 5-year interval, there was an increase in the number of patients who converted to an indwelling catheter. However, even at 15 years, 67% of the patients remained catheter-free, with the majority still on an ICP.

bladder cancer, indwelling catheter, intermittent catheterization, reflex void, renal deterioration, suprapubic cystotomy
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