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Primary repair of obstetric anal sphincter rupture using the overlap technique
A H Sultan1, A K Monga, D Kumar
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, St. George's Hospital, London, UK.
Objective:
To evaluate the feasibility of a new technique of primary overlap anal sphincter repair instead of end-to-end repair.
Setting:
A teaching hospital and a district general hospital.
Methods:
Between June 1995 and November 1996, two obstetricians repaired 32 anal sphincters ruptured during vaginal delivery. A ruptured internal sphincter was repaired separately and the torn ends of the external sphincter were overlapped and sutured with 3/0 polydioxanone sulphate sutures (Ethicon, Edinburgh, UK).
Main Outcome Measures:
Bowel function, clinical assessment, anal endosonography and manometry performed at a mean of 140 days after delivery.
Results:
Eight percent of the women experienced incontinence of flatus. Fifteen percent had persistent sonographic external sphincter defects, and 44% had internal sphincter defects. The maximum mean resting pressure was 58 mmHg (range 37-135) and the mean maximum incremental squeeze pressure 54 mmHg (range 8-104). None had defaecatory difficulty and no complications were encountered with the new technique of repair.
Conclusions:
Reservations regarding the feasibility of the overlap technique of primary repair are unfounded, as both subjective and objective outcomes are favourable compared with other studies using end-to-end approximation. A multicentre randomised study of the overlap vs end-to-end repair technique is now planned.