[Intravesical echography. II. Staging].

We evaluated 137 patients with bladder cancer submitted to surgery in order to determine the usefulness of intravesical ultrasonography (IVU) in tumor staging. The characteristic scan images were defined for each tumor stage. The application of the ultrasound patterns yielded an accuracy rate of 91% for tumors Ta"1 and 71% for T4. Based on the results of this study, IVU does not appear to be useful as an intraoperative monitoring technique.