Unveiling an Inverted Papilloma of the Bladder: A Case Series and Literature Review

TL;DR

This paper presents four cases of bladder inverted papilloma, a rare benign tumor, and discusses optimal management and follow-up strategies.

Contribution

The study provides a case series and literature review to guide clinical management and follow-up of bladder inverted papilloma.

Findings

Complete transurethral resection and histopathological confirmation are key for managing bladder inverted papilloma.

Intensive surveillance is unnecessary for confirmed cases, but selective follow-up is advised for atypical presentations.

A risk-adapted follow-up strategy is supported after complete resection.

Abstract

Bladder inverted papilloma (BIP) is a rare, benign urothelial lesion that can mimic urothelial carcinoma endoscopically but is characterized histologically by an endophytic growth of anastomosing urothelial cords without muscular invasion. We report a single-center case series of four patients managed with complete transurethral resection between January 2022 and August 2025, with the inclusion criterion being a histopathological diagnosis: a 28-year-old man with a trigonal lesion complicated by bladder perforation that healed uneventfully, a 72-year-old man in whom a small peri-orificial lesion was resected during urgent ureteric stenting and subsequently followed on a low-risk bladder cancer pathway with no recurrence at three years, an 84-year-old man with a large polypoid lesion arising near the bladder neck that was completely excised, and a 72-year-old woman with a pedunculated lateral wall mass treated by resection and single-dose intravesical mitomycin, remaining disease-free at one year. Synthesizing contemporary evidence and our experience, we highlight that accurate histopathological confirmation, complete endoscopic excision, and multidisciplinary discussion are key to management; routine intensive cystoscopic surveillance appears unnecessary for unequivocal bladder BIP, whereas selective follow-up is reasonable when pathology raises a differential of low-grade urothelial neoplasm with inverted growth or when lesions arise outside the bladder, where malignant association is higher. These findings support a pragmatic, risk-adapted follow-up strategy after complete resection.

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