Clinical benefits of tubeless umbilical cutaneous ureterostomy

We assess a novel technique of tubeless bilateral cutaneous ureterostomy, with a single umbilical stoma, for bladder cancer patients with short ureters after cystectomy. The benefit of cutaneous ureterostomy is equal to other incontinent urinary diversions, when the tubeless procedure is successfully achieved. This simple technique makes it easy to monitor the upper urinary tract (UUT) and is beneficial to patients with a high risk of UUT recurrence.

This old and new surgical technique was used to perform total cystectomy and urinary diversion on three patients with bladder cancer at a high risk of UUT recurrence.

Two men and one woman (mean age: 73 years) underwent this surgery and the mean follow-up period was 8.3 years. The surgical approaches were laparotomy (n = 2) and laparoscopy (n = 1). One case developed para-stomal erosion, whereas another developed ureteral stenosis requiring catheter reinsertion. Although postoperative hydronephrosis was observed in all cases, the mean preoperative and postoperative serum creatinine levels were 0.70 and 0.76, respectively. UUT recurrence was not observed during the follow-up period.

This tubeless umbilical cutaneous ureterostomy procedure greatly improves the outcome of urinary diversion for cancer patients with short ureters at a high risk of UUT recurrence. The benefits are equivalent to other urinary diversions when the tubeless procedure is successfully achieved.