Bladder Puncture of a Young Child

Bladder puncture of a young child. The puncture site is the deep transverse skin crease seen above the symphysis or a site which has been confirmed with ultrasound and where the bladder is closest to the anterior abdominal wall. A thin needle is used for a quick puncture perpendicular to the skin into the bladder and the sample (10-15 ml) is aspirated. If urine cannot at first be aspirated and the needle is almost completely inserted, the needle is pulled up slowly while aspirating lightly; sometimes it is possible to obtain urine at this stage. This puncture is technically relatively easy, and complications occur very rarely. If ultrasound equipment is available, it can be used to verify that the bladder is full enough before the bladder puncture.

Image: Matti Uhari, Harri Saxén and Jussi Mertsola.