A frail man in his 80s with a long-term urinary catheter was admitted to the hospital with a serious infection and a catheter that kept blocking. Imaging revealed the reason: a large, gas-containing mass inside his bladder that was backing urine up into both kidneys. Once surgeons removed it, lab testing turned up microorganisms consistent with two urinary bacteria, Proteus and Aerococcus.
The case was published online Sept. 24, 2026, in BMJ Case Reports by a team from Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Norwich, U.K. The authors titled it "Recurrent hydronephrosis and catheter blockage, secondary to an organised bacterial mass within the bladder."
