Rectovaginal fistula: An early complication of radiotherapy in a sexagenarian with cervical cancer

ABSTRACT

A 62-year-old Nigerian woman was admitted on account of cervical carcinoma Stage IV and was requested to undergo radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Six weeks after commencing this treatment she starting passing feces involuntarily through the vagina. Imaging studies revealed a high sited, medium sized, and rectovaginal fistula (RVF). RVFs have been documented as a late complication of radiotherapy for any gynecological malignancy but it occurred earlier in this patient. A preliminary surgical procedure, a sigmoid-ostomy, was performed successfully and a definitive surgery, a sigmoido-rectal anastomosis, was planned to be done in 18 months after the diagnosis of the RVF but the patient died shortly after the first procedure. The present case indicates that a RVF can occur as an early complication of radiotherapy even when it presents with mild symptoms.