[Richter's sacrospinous ligament fixation and its place in current gynecology]

In 1968 K. Richter treated post-hysterectomy prolapse of the vaginal stump by fixating the vaginal stump to the sacrospinous ligament via transvaginal route. Nowadays most authors perceive this technique as an inseparable component of vaginal hysterectomy, for the purpose of preventing vaginal stump prolapse. The authors present the results of Richter's operation among 53 patients, 33 of whom operated on in the Department of General and Oncological Gynaecology at the Military Medical Academy (Sofia), 12 operated on in the Department of Gynaecology at the Military Medical Academy (Varna), 4 in the Municipal Maternity Hospital "St Sofia" (Sofia) and 4 in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Multi-profile Hospital for Active Medical Treatment (Samokov) during the period 2009-2013. In 26 of the cases (49%) the operative indication was a severe vaginal descensus, in 23 (44%)--total uterine prolapse, in 4 (7%)--prolapse of the vaginal stump following hysterectomy. Twenty-six of those women (56%) didn't have any symptoms of urinary incontinence, as 20 (38%) had symptoms of urinary stress incontinence. The median age of operated women is 64 (age range: 43-78 y.o.). All of them experienced at least once a vaginal birth (average parity: 2). The average duration of subjective complaints caused by their condition was 41 months (range: 2-120 months.) The average duration of the operation was 122 minutes (range: 60-210 min). The average amount of blood lost during the operation was 218 ml (range: 60-400 ml). No intraoperative complications were registered. Early postoperative complications consisted in 3 cases of considerable bleeding through the stitches which faded without any special measures, blood transfusion included. One patient developed a haematoma in the ischiorectal fossa which was incised and evacuated. The long-term results, recorded at post-op visits 1 and 6 months after the operation, were satisfactory: regardless their age and their preoperative genital status, surgery in 93% of the cases has led to stable correction of the pelvic statics and disappearance of urinary incontinence in case the latter did exist. Recurrent prolapse was noted in 4 cases (7%), in two of which the condition was diagnosed as a partial recurrence. The authors regard those recurrences as resulting from technical errors, rather than as a shortcoming of the surgical procedure.