Frederick C. McLellan and Clinical Cystometrics

Precise analysis of lower urinary tract function was an unfulfilled dream only a century ago. By the late 19th century, water manometers and plethysmographs were utilized to measure bladder pressures. In the early 1900s, Rose developed a cystometer that was later improved by Munro. In 1938 Frederick C. McLellan, active in clinical research under Reed Nesbit at the University of Michigan, was the first to apply the earlier principles and cystometric tools to a large group of patients and created the first modern paradigm of bladder dysfunction. McLellan’s work brought clinical relevance to the cystometer and thus precision to the analysis of lower urinary tract function.