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Purpose. Direct instillation of drug solutions into the bladder through a urethral catheter (i.e., intravesical therapy) evades systemic adverse effects of drugs used for bladder diseases. However, conventional vehicles for these drugs fail to extend duration of drug exposure in the bladder beyond the first voiding of urine postinstillation. The current study seeks to overcome the aforementioned inherent limitation of intravesical drug administration by using thermosensitive hydrogel as a matrix for sustained intravesical drug delivery.

Methods. Under halothane anesthesia, normal adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were catheterized with PE-50 tubing to instill either 0.02% w/v solution of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) or the same amount of FITC in a 30% w/v dispersion of thermosensitive P[Poly(ethylene glycol)-Poly[lactic acid-co-glycolic acid]-Poly(ethylene glycol)P] (PEG-PLGA-PEG) polymer in a 0.1 …