Electromyography of anal sphincters after radical gynecological surgery

In this study, the Authors report their own experience in electromyography of anal sphincters. The clinical evaluation concerns a clinical series of 14 patients suffering from carcinoma of the uterine cervix at SPS stage A and B, and undergoing a personalized radical hysterectomy during 1986. The protocol included a preoperative electromyographic and urodynamic evaluation and a post-operative re-evaluation 30-60 days after surgery. The pre-operative evaluation in both the urodynamic test and the electromyographic test showed bladder-urethral function in all the cases examined. The post-operative electromyographic evaluation was considered normal and did not show alterations in the sphincteral function in 9 cases (64.3%). In the remaining 5 cases (35.7%) the presence of sphincteral incoordination was shown. The analysis of the results shows that the use of electromyography, connected with the usual urodynamic study in gynaecological oncology, objectively recognises the sphincter-detrusorial situations characterized by dysuria and retention from a clinical-anamnestic point of view.