Ureterosigmoidostomy: an outdated approach to bladder exstrophy?

Long-term results among 46 children with ureterosigmoidostomy are presented. The indication for ureterosigmoidostomy had been bladder exstrophy in 40 patients, incontinent epispadias in 5 and neurogenic bladder dysfunction in 1. Of the 40 patients with bladder exstrophy 8 had undergone ureterosigmoidostomy after failure of other types of urinary tract reconstruction (6 had upper tract dilatation before ureterosigmoidostomy). Three patients with previously damaged upper urinary tracts required early postoperative conversion because of severely increasing kidney dilatation. Three other patients required conversion after a mean of 10 years to preserve kidney function. One patient died after 16 years of a cause not related to ureterosigmoidostomy. The remaining 39 patients were alive with a functioning ureterosigmoidostomy after a mean followup of 14.7 years. The daytime continence rate was 97.4% (38 of 39 patients) and the complete continence rate was 92.3% (36 of 39). Except for 1 tubular adenoma that was removed successfully during routine colonoscopy, no bowel neoplasia has been observed. None of the 45 living patients has renal insufficiency.