Transvaginal repair of vesicovaginal fistula using a peritoneal flap.

Even complex vesicovaginal fistulas may be repaired transvaginally. In difficult repairs adjunctive measures have been described to increase the success rate of surgery, including Martius flaps, labial flaps or gracilis muscle flap. We describe a new technique to repair difficult vesicovaginal fistulas via a transvaginal approach. A flap of peritoneum is developed and used to buttress the fistula repair. This repair was successful in 9 of 11 patients (82%). Complications occurred in only 1 patient who suffered a bladder diverticulum containing a stone. The major advantage of this technique is its simplicity and lack of an extravaginal harvesting incision. This repair is particularly well suited for complex, high lying vesicovaginal fistulas.

Transvaginal repair of enterocele.

The urologist actively involved in the treatment of female genitourinary disease must to be able to recognize and treat various forms of pelvic prolapse. Enterocele is commonly seen in conjunction with stress urinary incontinence and cystocele or it may result from surgery to correct these problems. Many techniques to correct enterocele have been developed, including transvaginal repairs as well as intra-abdominal procedures such as the Moschcowitz technique or colpofixation to the sacrum for enterocele with vault prolapse. Surgical management of enterocele must take into account several factors, including the presence of stress urinary incontinence, rectocele, vaginal vault prolapse, prior hysterectomy and the desire to maintain sexual activity. Based on these considerations we discuss our approach to the transvaginal repair of enterocele. In patients without vault prolapse a simple enterocele repair is performed. If vault prolapse is present, then the condition of the anterior vaginal wall is considered. In patients with a cystocele a vault suspension procedure is performed, which involves simultaneous suspension of the uterosacral-cardinal ligament complex and vaginal vault along with the bladder neck and bladder. There are 2 modifications of this technique depending on the degree of cystocele: the 4-corner vault suspension for grades 2 and 3 cystocele, and the vault suspension with grade 4 cystocele repair. Patients with vault prolapse and no cystocele undergo sacrospinous ligament fixation. In elderly patients who are not sexually active, especially if they are in poor medical condition, partial colpocleisis is considered. In these patients partial colpocleisis was not performed as a primary procedure but it was done later in 3 who failed an initial attempt at repair. All coexisting vaginal pathology is fixed at the time of enterocele repair. A total of 83 patients underwent enterocele repair according to this protocol and 81 were available for followup. Mean followup was 15 months (range 3 to 70). Overall a successful result (no recurrence) was achieved in 70 patients (86%). Success for individual procedures was 40 of 49 (82%) for simple repair, 24 of 25 (96%) for vault suspension and 6 of 7 (86%) for sacrospinous fixation. In all cases vault suspension or sacrospinous fixation was able to restore vaginal depth and axis with minimal or no vaginal shortening.

The Raz bladder neck suspension in patients 65 years old and older.

We reviewed the charts of 92 women 65 years old and older (mean age 72 years, range 65 to 87 years) who underwent the Raz bladder neck suspension between January 1984 and June 1990 for stress urinary incontinence. Mean followup was 17 months. Overall, a successful outcome (cure or rare stress urinary incontinence not requiring protection) was achieved in 81 patients (88%). The 2-sample Wilcoxon rank sum test showed that the only predictor of outcome was the subjective degree of preoperative stress urinary incontinence (mild, moderate or severe, p = 0.0148). When the results were stratified by degree of incontinence preoperatively 8 of 8 patients (100%) with mild, 62 of 67 (93%) with moderate and 11 of 17 (65%) with severe incontinence had a successful outcome. Prior hysterectomy, number and type of previous anti-incontinence procedures, and the presence of urgency, urgency incontinence or urodynamic instability were not statistically significant predictors of outcome. In addition, the degree of clinical instability preoperatively had no correlation with the degree of postoperative instability. Of 11 failures 10 occurred within 1 year postoperatively. Significant urgency incontinence was present preoperatively in 32% of the patients with postoperative resolution in 60%. De novo urgency and urgency incontinence occurred in 24% and 13% of the patients, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the outcome of surgery in patients 65 years old and older compared to 141 patients less than 65 years old with respect to success, cure of stress urinary incontinence, cure of significant urgency and urgency incontinence, and appearance of de novo instability. The Raz bladder neck suspension is a safe and efficacious treatment for stress incontinence in elderly women. Outcomes can be expected to be the same as in younger women.

The Raz bladder neck suspension: results in 206 patients.

We reviewed the charts of 206 patients who underwent the Raz bladder neck suspension between January 1984 and June 1990 for stress urinary incontinence. Mean followup was 15 months. Overall, our results demonstrated a successful outcome (cure or rare stress urinary incontinence not requiring protection) in 186 of 206 patients (90.3%). Cox multivariant analysis showed that the only predictor of outcome was the degree of preoperative stress urinary incontinence (mild, moderate or severe, p less than 0.001). When the results were stratified by degree of incontinence preoperatively 20 of 21 patients (95%) with mild, 151 of 162 (93%) with moderate and 15 of 23 (65%) with severe incontinence had a successful outcome. No statistical correlation was found with patient age, number of prior operations, hysterectomy, urgency incontinence or menopause. For the patients who failed, the mean interval to recurrent stress urinary incontinence was 5 months. Significant urgency incontinence was present preoperatively in 58 of the 204 patients (29%), with postoperative resolution in 66%. De novo urgency incontinence occurred in 7.5%. Complications included secondary prolapse (6% of the patients), prolonged retention (2.5%) and suprapubic pain (3%). In summary, the Raz bladder neck suspension for correction of stress urinary incontinence has been successful in more than 90% of this patient population.