The Indiana pouch continent urinary reservoir

The right colon reservoir using a stapled plicated ileal efferent limb (Indiana continent urinary reservoir) has been demonstrated to be a reproducible durable form of continent diversion. The overall day and nocturnal continence rate of 94% compares favorably with all other forms of continent cutaneous diversion. Carefully following the technique of stapling and plicating the ileal efferent limb and ileocecal valve as described in this article nearly ensures adequate competence of the outlet valve. In the rare case in which incontinence occurs, it is almost always on the basis of high-pressure unit contractions of the reservoir. On occasion, patients who develop incontinence are observed to have high pressures within the reservoir despite complete detubularization of the right colon segment. When this problem is encountered it can be corrected successfully by adding an ileal patch augmentation to the previously detubularized reservoir. The issue of ureteral implantation in continent urinary diversions is as yet unsettled. Many authors have not used ureteral tenial tunnels and have reported a reflux rate of < 13%. Furthermore, these patients have not developed any long-term sequelae of their reflux. Although favorable results have been obtained without creating tunneled tenial reimplantation, we believe that continent cutaneous reservoirs are almost always colonized with bacteria, and an antireflux mechanism may offer protection against subsequent pyelonephritis. Closure of the reservoir traditionally has been conducted by hand at our institution; however, the development of smaller absorbable gastrointestinal anastomosis stapling devices offers the theoretic advantage of shortening the operative time. We anxiously await follow-up, including larger patient numbers and longer term follow-up of the absorbable staple technique. The use of continent cutaneous urinary diversion clearly has decreased as bladder replacement has become a more viable procedure over the past decade. Despite this, the urologic reconstructive surgeon must maintain the ability to perform continent cutaneous diversion in patients who are unwilling to accept the potential for nocturnal incontinence observed in all forms of bladder replacement as well as the patients who have ineffective sphincter mechanism or who need a urethrectomy due to their primary disease.