Recovery and rehabilitation

Most procedures in this atlas are short, but getting back to normal takes longer than the procedure itself. This hub compares three recovery topics in plain terms: urinary catheters, pelvic floor muscle training and unweighted treadmill training. It is general information, and each person's surgical team gives the instructions that apply to them.

Catheters and bladder drainage

A urinary catheter is usually the first recovery topic, because it is often in place when a person wakes up. The NHS says short-term catheters may stay in for minutes, hours or days, while long-term ones are typically indwelling and need daily care. The card on urinary catheters after surgery covers types, duration, care basics and warning signs. The key practical point from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is that prolonged use is the most important risk factor for catheter-associated infection, which is why teams review whether a catheter is still needed.

Rebuilding control and activity

Pelvic floor muscle training is a program of repeated squeeze-and-lift exercises that aims to improve bladder control. The card on pelvic floor muscle training explains the technique and the timescale, which is usually weeks to months. It also says plainly where the evidence is mixed. A 2023 Cochrane review of conservative treatments for incontinence after prostate surgery found the value of these interventions uncertain, because many trials were small.

The third card, unweighted treadmill training in rehabilitation, looks at a different goal. It concerns rebuilding walking and general physical activity in a supervised setting, rather than bladder control. The two kinds of rehabilitation can sit side by side, so a person may be doing pelvic floor exercises while also working on strength and mobility under a therapist's guidance.

Where recovery overlaps with procedures

Recovery advice differs by procedure, so these cards are best read alongside the procedure card. Cystoscopy is the simplest scope procedure to compare against. Ureteral stent placement and removal and the stone procedures hub describe a stent sitting in the urinary tract and the stone operations that may involve one. Transurethral resection of the prostate is the main example where catheter care and later bladder control come together.

Unfamiliar words are explained in the glossary. For any recovery question, the discharge instructions and the clinic's contact numbers take priority over general reading.