A TURBT (transurethral resection of bladder tumor) typically takes between 15 and 90 minutes for the procedure itself. However, your total time at the hospital will be significantly longer once you factor in preparation, anesthesia, and recovery. Most people should plan for a half-day commitment, though some go home sooner.
What Determines the Procedure Length
The wide range of 15 to 90 minutes reflects real differences between cases. Three main factors drive how long your surgeon will need:
- Tumor size: A single small tumor can be resected in under 20 minutes, while a larger growth requires more careful cutting and cauterization.
- Number of tumors: Multiple tumors mean the surgeon must reposition the scope and resect each one individually, adding time with each additional site.
- Tumor location: Tumors near the openings where the ureters connect to the bladder, or on the dome of the bladder, can be harder to reach and require more precise work to avoid damaging surrounding structures.
Your surgeon’s technique also plays a role. Some use conventional white light, while others use blue light cystoscopy, which helps reveal flat or hard-to-see tumors. The additional imaging step can extend the procedure slightly but may result in more complete tumor removal.
Total Time at the Hospital
The surgical time is only one piece of your day. Before the procedure, you’ll go through check-in, change into a gown, have an IV placed, and meet with the anesthesia team. This pre-operative phase generally takes 30 to 60 minutes. Anesthesia induction itself, whether general or spinal, adds another 15 to 20 minutes before the surgeon begins.
After the procedure, you’ll spend time in the recovery area while the anesthesia wears off. Patients typically remain in recovery for a few hours, depending on the type of anesthetic used and how they respond. For a straightforward case with a small tumor, you might be ready to leave within two to three hours of the surgery ending. A more complex resection could keep you there longer.
TURBT is almost always an outpatient procedure, meaning you go home the same day. Overnight stays are uncommon but can happen if the tumor was large, if there’s significant bleeding, or if the surgeon needed to resect deeply into the bladder wall.
Post-Operative Chemotherapy Adds Time
In many cases, your surgical team will instill a chemotherapy solution directly into your bladder immediately after the tumor is removed. This single-dose treatment is designed to kill any stray cancer cells left on the bladder lining and reduce the chance of recurrence. The drug stays in your bladder for one to two hours before being drained through your catheter or passed when you urinate.
Including the setup and monitoring, this instillation adds roughly two to three hours to your overall hospital visit. Not everyone receives it. Your urologist will decide based on the tumor’s characteristics and whether the bladder wall was perforated during resection, which would make the instillation unsafe.
The Catheter After Surgery
Most patients wake up with a urinary catheter in place. For smaller, uncomplicated resections, the catheter is often removed before you leave the hospital, sometimes within a few hours once the urine runs relatively clear. If the tumor was large or the resection was extensive, your urologist may leave the catheter in for a day or two to allow the bladder to heal and to monitor bleeding. The catheter comes out once the bleeding has stopped.
Having a catheter for a short period is uncomfortable but manageable. If you’re sent home with one, you’ll receive instructions on how to care for the drainage bag and what signs of complications to watch for.
What Recovery Looks Like
Most people feel well enough to resume light daily activities within a few days. You can expect blood-tinged urine for one to two weeks after the procedure, which gradually clears. Burning or urgency when urinating is common in the first week as the bladder lining heals.
Heavy lifting and strenuous exercise are typically off-limits for two to three weeks to reduce the risk of bleeding. Your surgeon will schedule a follow-up appointment to review the pathology results, which usually come back within one to two weeks. Those results determine whether additional treatment, such as further resections or a course of bladder instillation therapy, is needed.