Transurethral Resection of Bladder Tumor (TURBT)

Written by Sonya Collins
Medically Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD on April 16, 2025
9 min read

If you have bladder cancer or suspected bladder cancer, your doctor has probably told you that you need a transurethral resection of the bladder tumor, or “TURBT” for short. 

A TURBT procedure is used to both diagnose and treat bladder cancer. 

A doctor inserts a long, thin, flexible tool called a resectoscope into your urethra. That’s the tube that carries urine from your bladder outside your body. By going in through this natural opening in your body, the doctor doesn’t need to make any cuts in your skin. That’s what makes it a minimally invasive procedure. 

The resectoscope has a light, a video camera, and loop on the end that’s used to remove tumors. During the procedure, the doctor uses the scope to see and remove the tumors. 

“It serves a diagnostic and potentially therapeutic purpose in that we confirm the type of bladder cancer; we grade the tumor as high grade or low grade, and we stage it,”  says Roger Li, MD, a genitourinary oncologist at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL. That is, the doctor can find out what stage cancer you have based on whether and how far the tumor has spread into the bladder wall. “In some cases,” he says, “we can also fully resect [take out] the tumor.” 

Does health insurance cover TURBT?
Because TURBT is a medically necessary procedure included in standard care for bladder cancer, most health insurance covers it. But individual details of coverage can vary. You might have a large copay, or you may need to pay a high deductible before your insurance company starts paying for your care. 

Before the procedure, ask the clinic for an estimate of what you can expect to pay out of pocket for this procedure. 

TURBT is minimally invasive. That means the doctor doesn’t have to make any cuts in your skin to do it. It’s also usually outpatient, which means most people can go to the clinic and go back home on the same day. 

Here’s what you can expect. 

Before the procedure

You will probably have a pre-op appointment or video consultation within a week or so of your procedure. In this appointment, your doctor will figure out which kind of anesthesia is best for you to have during the procedure. The doctor might also need a urine specimen. 

At some point before the TURBT, your health care provider will tell you exactly what you need to do to prepare for it. You’ll need to follow these instructions carefully to avoid complications. Pre-op recommendations may vary slightly from one provider to the next. 

Here’s some of the instructions you might get:

  • Don’t eat anything for eight hours before the procedure.
  • Don’t drink water after midnight the night before your surgery. 
  • Stop taking some or all of your medications, depending on your provider’s specific instructions and which medications you take. You might stop taking aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, and blood thinners up to a week before surgery because they can cause bleeding.
  • Take any necessary medications with just a small sip of water. 
  • Ask someone to drive you home after the procedure.
  • Take a bath or shower before you go.
  • Don’t use any lotion, perfume, or deodorant on the day of the procedure.

During TURBT

Before the procedure begins, your doctor might use a catheter to send a dye into your bladder that makes the tumor easier to see during the TURBT. 

Next you’ll receive either general or, in some cases, spinal anesthesia. With general anesthesia, you’ll be completely asleep for the entire procedure. With spinal anesthesia, which is less often used for TURBT, you are awake but numb from the waist down.

Here’s what happens next:

  • The doctor inserts the resectoscope (or just “scope”) into your urethra and carefully guides it into your bladder.
  • The camera on the end of the scope sends images of the inside of your bladder to a video monitor in the operating room for your doctor to see.
  • Once the doctor sees the tumor or tumors on the monitor, they will use the loop to remove the tumors. 
  • With the loop, the doctor can apply heat to the spot where the tumor was, or “cauterize” the blood vessels, to stop any bleeding. 
  • After the tumors have been removed and bleeding has stopped, your doctor might insert a catheter to drain urine and any other fluids from your bladder, which can help prevent blood clots and abnormal fluid buildup. They might also use the catheter to flush out the bladder with saline solution. 

How long does TURBT take? 

The TURBT itself takes about 15 to 90 minutes. The exact length of the procedure depends on the size, number, and location of the tumors as well as the doctor’s technique. But you will be asked to arrive a couple of hours early and you may be in recovery for a couple of hours afterward. 

Is TURBT painful?

You won’t feel any pain during the procedure since you’ll be asleep or numb from the waist down. But after the procedure, it might hurt to pee for a couple of days to a couple of weeks.

How many times can you have TURBT for bladder cancer? 

Bladder cancer often comes back, and TURBT is a standard part of diagnosis and initial treatment. For that reason, “It’s not uncommon, unfortunately, for patients to have TURBT multiple times,” says Eugene Pietzak, MD, a urologic oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

You might also have to have additional TURBT procedures if the tumor or tumors weren’t completely removed the first time around. “It’s not uncommon for there to be smaller tumors that may have been missed,” Pietzak says. “TURBT is far from a perfect operation, but we are definitely doing things to try to improve the success rates.”

After the TURBT procedure, you’ll need a little time to recover in the hospital and at home. You’ll also get test results and more information about your cancer and the outcome of the procedure.  

TURBT results

The tumors removed during your TURBT procedure will be sent for analysis by a pathologist – a doctor who looks closely at tissue samples. This analysis will show the type of bladder cancer you have, the stage, and the grade (low-risk versus high-risk). 

TURBT recovery

Most people only need to be monitored at the hospital for a few hours after the procedure. But sometimes people need to stay in the hospital overnight. 

If the doctor inserted a catheter after the procedure, a health care provider will remove it as soon as you no longer have blood in your pee. They might remove it while you are still at the hospital, or you may need to keep it in for a little while at home. It just depends how much blood there is. 

Remaining traces of blood in your bladder can make your pee turn pink. Don’t be scared. It’s normal. 

As far as what you might feel after the procedure, Pietzak says, “Generally, patients experience some worsening of their urinary symptoms for about 48 hours after the procedure. Urinary urgency, frequency, burning with urination, and blood in the urine are fairly common afterward as well.” 

You can improve these symptoms and help the healing process by drinking plenty of fluids in the days after your TURBT. 

You’ll need to avoid strenuous activity and heavy lifting – including picking up children, pets, and groceries – for a few weeks after the procedure. Ask your doctor exactly how long. Your doctor might also ask you to avoid sex during this time. 

Your bladder should heal in about two to four weeks. If you are still seeing blood or feeling urinary symptoms, like burning and pain, after that, let your doctor know. 

Additional Treatment after TURBT

In some cases, doctors are able to completely remove all the tumors from the bladder. Even if they do, they may still recommend chemotherapy after TURBT to lower the risk of a recurrence or of leaving any tiny cancer cells behind. 

If the cancer hasn’t spread beyond the bladder, you may receive a few rounds of what’s called intravesical chemotherapy. That’s when the doctor fills the bladder with chemotherapy medication and you hold it there for a short period of time before it’s flushed out. 

You could get a round of this type of chemotherapy immediately following the TURBT. 

“There’s randomized, controlled clinical trial data that demonstrates that giving intravesical chemotherapy at the time of TURBT is beneficial in reducing the risk of recurrence,” Pietzak says. 

You may get a few additional rounds of intravesical chemotherapy in weeks and months after the TURBT. 

If the cancer has spread beyond your bladder, you might get chemotherapy through an IV infusion so that it can reach your entire body and not only your bladder. 

TURBT is a common and safe procedure. The risk of any type of complication, such as a bladder injury or infection, is pretty low at less than a 10% chance. 

The most common, but still rare, complication, Li says, “is uncontrolled bleeding to the point that we need to go back in and perform another procedure, under general anesthesia, to stop the bleeding.” 

The other serious but rare possible complication of TURBT, he says, is that “there could potentially be a perforation through the wall of the bladder.” That means the doctor could accidentally pierce your bladder during the procedure. But, he adds, “There’s a repair for that.” And whether you’d even need a repair depends on the exact location of the tear. 

You also have a small risk of bladder infection after the procedure, which can be treated easily. 

In addition, anesthesia comes with some risks that depend on the type anesthesia used and your individual risk factors, such as allergies and your health. 

TURBT is a standard part of bladder cancer care that takes place early in the treatment process. It is used to both diagnose and treat bladder cancer.

TURBT is a safe and common procedure that’s usually done on an outpatient basis. Recovery may take two to four weeks.

You may still need some type of chemotherapy after TURBT.

Is TURBT a major surgery?

No, TURBT is a minimally invasive procedure. Doctors insert the necessary tool into the bladder through your urethra so that they don’t need to make any cuts in your skin. 

What is the life expectancy after TURBT?

Almost everyone with bladder cancer gets a TURBT procedure, but life expectancy varies greatly by cancer stage. Doctors tend not to speak in terms of “life expectancy” but more often in terms of “five-year survival rates.” That means how many people with a certain type of cancer are still alive five years later. That doesn’t mean that they will only live five more years. It’s just that doctors and researchers stop tracking cancer survivors as closely after five years. 

Here are the five-year survival rates for bladder cancer by stage:

Stage 0 (in situ): 97%

Stage I-II (localized): 72%

Stage III (regional): 40%

Stage IV (distant): 9%

How long does it take your bladder to heal after TURBT?

Everyone is different, and it depends a lot on your individual health as well as what was removed, but the estimated time is two to four weeks.

What is the most common complication of TURBT?

Uncontrolled bleeding that could require a second procedure in order to stop it.

Do you need chemo after TURBT?

Even if your doctor removes the tumor completely through TURBT, they may still recommend some type of chemo to reduce your risk of recurrence and the chance that tiny cancer cells are left behind.