Metal fatigue causing cystoscope rupture during bladder neck incision.

The modern cystoscope is the result of the advancement in technology in numerous areas and is an invaluable tool that allows the urologist to perform a number of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Although various degrees of endoscope failure have been widely reported, instrument breakage that leads to a foreign body has not. While performing a bladder neck stricture incision for a 72-year-old male patient with a previous radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer and a resulting bladder neck stricture, we documented a major 17-French cystoscope malfunction and a resulting foreign body that was retrieved from the bladder using a 22-French scope and alligator forceps.