[Ureterovaginal fistulas: diagnosis and surgical tactic. Apropos of 19 personal cases]

Personal experience of the treatment of 19 ureterovaginal fistulae, observed from september 1987 to june 1991 on 17 patients in Africa is described and analysed. Occurring after gynecological or obstetrical surgery, the main cause is hysterectomy (82.3%). Elements for diagnosis were: the appearance of a urine leak, which in most cases came rapidly, echography, and most important, intravenous urography (IVU). Surgical management in all of the cases was mainly aimed at conservation. One end-to-end anastomosis and 18 cuff reimplantations were performed, combined in 2 cases with a sub-mucus tunnel (Politano), in 14 cases combined with a tubular Boari bladder flap (wherein 1 case was bilateral), 3 combined with a bladder psoas hitch and 2 with an isolated ileal graft (ileo-ureterocystoplasty). One case of vesicouterine fistula and 4 associated vesicovaginal fistulae benefited from a simultaneous surgical operation. In this study of 17 patients treated, except for one patient deceased 14 months following a neoplastic recurrence, the results were excellent. 16 patients were cured. Follow-up extended to more than a year and have shown the perfect conservation of the excretory ducts in all of the cases studied. The cuffed ureterovesical reimplantation combined with a tubular bladder plasty definitively seem to be a most reliable management technique for all ureter injury encountered. While allowing the preservation of the kidney located just below, it has, in particular, prevented ureter stenosis. If the use of simpler methods (psoas bladder hitch) may be sufficient for some cases, the use of more complex method (ileoureterocystoplasty) for other cases, may be indispensable.