Diagnosis and treatment of a rare tumor-bladder paraganglioma

Bladder paragangliomas are very rare tumors that are often misdiagnosed. The present study retrospectively analyzed the clinical data and follow-up results of patients with bladder paraganglioma that were treated surgically in Peking University Shenzhen Hospital between 2012 and 2018, and reviewed the relevant literature. A total of 4 patients with bladder paraganglioma were treated surgically from 2012 to 2018. All patients were female with ages ranging from 28 to 54 years old (average, 47.25). A total of one patient exhibited micturition attacks and palpitations, and one other exhibited gross hematuria. A total of two patients exhibited while no obvious symptoms. One patient exhibited elevated plasma catecholamine, was well prepared with medicine and underwent partial cystectomy, and 3 patients were not successfully diagnosed with paraganglioma before surgery. These patients received transurethral resection and 2 had distinct blood pressure elevation during operation. After surgery, the patients were followed-up for 5-69 months, during which all had normal blood pressure and none experienced recurrence. Bladder paragangliomas exhibit a variety of clinical presentations, which can be nonspecific for the non-functional ones, therefore may easily lead to misdiagnosis. Surgeons must fully consider the possibility of this disease when dealing with non-epithelial bladder tumors. Surgical resection is an effective treatment. For cases successfully diagnosed before surgery, partial cystectomy should be a treatment priority.