Varsity Students in KL Are Rushing To The Toilet and its Reason will Shock you !

Students in the urbanised landscapes of Malaysia are lately visiting local clinics - hoping to find remedy for their bladder from ringing the pee green light too often.

 Ketamine induced cystitis 

A relatively new condition among teenagers and here is the cause.

Substance abuse as a prominent burden in the community has amplified its effect with the introduction of ketamine in the list.=

A drug used to maintain anesthesia, ketamine is now a popular recreational option as it provides analgesia ( pain relief ) and sedation to produce a trance like state. It comes in the form of powder.

 

Though its mechanism of action in damaging the urinary bladder is not clearly known, some believe that the metabolic byproducts are stored in the bladder long enough for it to cause some irritation.

The urine is stored in bladder upon receiving it from the kidneys before being excreted

Over time, the bladder gets inflamed ( cystitis ), leading to a shrunk bladder. Just think of it this way - your bladder is containing some foreign stuff that it doesn't like, so your body tries to fight it. In that process, your own bladder gets damaged by the materials your body uses to get rid of the thrash.

In a war, though two parties exchange bullets, we still have destructive consequences to the surrounding infrastructures and citizens. This is somewhat an analogy to help you visualise things better.

So a shrunken bladder expresses its sorrow by making you run to the loo every 2 minutes. A tiny bladder cannot hold much urine. A healthy bladder can hold up to 600 ml of urine. A bladder in a long term relationship with ketamine on the other hand - can only hold up to 50 ml ! ... 100 ml of urine at most !

So the presenting complain is typically painful urination ( dysuria ) , urgency and frequency ( frequent urge to urinate ).When the substance abuser pees, the desire to unleash his fountain of youth is back as quick as within 2 minutes. They have to literally live in the toilet.

Treatment ? 

No medications for it. Since chemotherapy is unreliable here, surgical intervention is the option..

The next time your friend or kids complain about painful urination and having to camp in the gents, here is something to consider. That whitish hue sitting on his philtrum may be something more than his favourite milkshake stain.

Info Courtesy : Mentor - Dr Murali Mohan, Urologist