[Recto-sacral fixation in the treatment of rectal prolapse refractory to conservative treatment]

The clinical cases of 20 patients submitted to Reifferscheid intervention (fixation of rectum to promontorium) between 1967 and 1997 are presented.

Twenty patients have been treated by means of the operation of Reifferscheid. They were divided in two groups: from 1967 to 1972, ten patients were submitted to this technique (group A). From 1974 to 1997, other ten patients (group B). In each case, the following items were registered: sex, eventual secondary diagnosis, incision, complications, middle-term evolution.

Group A: Middle age: 2.15 years old. Sex: 7 girls (5 of them presented mielomeningocele) and 3 males; pararectal incision for babies, Pfannenstiel incision for children over 1 year-old.

2 years without recidives. Group B: Middle age: 2.5 years-old, 9 males (2 of them were diagnosed of mielomeningocele) and 1 girl. No recidives were detected.

These excellent results obtained with Reifferscheid operation contrast with the poor results referred by other authors for other therapeutical approaches. That is why, in patients affected of serious rectal prolapse, especially when associated to other pathologies, rectal fixation to promontorium is an useful and long-term sure approach.