Comparison of pain, quality of life, lower urinary tract symptoms and sexual function between flexible and rigid cystoscopy in follow‐up male patients with non muscle invasive bladder cancer: A randomized controlled cross section single blind study

Objectives To compare pain, quality of life (QoL), sexual function and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) between rigid (RC) and flexible cystoscopy (FC). Methods Forty‐one patients who were planned control cystoscopies were enrolled the study. At the first cystoscopy, 20 patients (Group 1) and other 21 patients (Group 2) were performed by flexible (15.5 Fr) and rigid cystoscope (15.5 Fr), respectively. At the second cystoscopies, the patients in group 1 and group 2 were performed by rigid and flexible cystosacope, respectively. In all the patients, pain was measured with visual pain scale (VPS) shortly after cystoscopy. Also, SF, QoL and LUTS were assessed by IIEF, SF‐36 and MLUTS forms, respectively. Results While 22 of the patients preferred FC, the other 19 preferred RC (P > 0.05). There were no statistical differences between VPS, IIEF, SF‐36 and MLUTS scores of the two groups. In multivariate analysis regarding the quality of life, although sexual function, pain and cystoscopy type did not affect QoL, voiding symptoms affected independently QoL. After both cystoscopy type, IIEF, SF‐36 and MLUTS scores did not change statistically. Conclusion The results showed that the effects on pain, sexual function, QoL and LUTS of RC and FC were similar. In general, cystoscopy did not affect negatively on QoL, sexual function and LUTS of the patients.