The Boyce-Vest operation for exstrophy of the bladder. 35 years later

Twenty-four patients with exstrophy of the urinary bladder (23 patients) or epispadias (1 patient) who were treated by the Boyce-Vest operation have been followed for a total of 482 patient-years (range 3 to 34 years, mean 22 years). In all patients upper urinary morphology and renal function have remained normal, and those with preoperative compromise have stabilized or improved. Postoperatively, no patient has developed an electrolyte imbalance or metabolic acidosis requiring treatment, urinary calculi, or malignant change in the vesicorectal reservoir. Although the procedure and the exstrophy-epispadias complex present many unresolved of management. The infant with exstrophy of the urinary bladder appears best served by early neonatal closure of the exstrophic bladder as described by Jeffs, 6,8 with attempts at establishing urinary continence later in childhood. 6,8,11 When other methods to establish urinary continence are unsuccessful and satisfactory anal continence has been demonstrated, the Boyce-Vest procedure offers an acceptable long-term alternative to establish sphincteric urinary continence. Properly managed, the newborn with uncomplicated exstrophy should have a life expectancy equal to that of any other neonate. More importantly, it is within our ability to provide such patients with adult social acceptability and relative freedom from urinary disease.