Raup Valary T, Eswara Jairam R, Marshall Stephen D, Brandes Steven B
Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Case Rep Urol. 2015;2015:836454. doi: 10.1155/2015/836454. Epub 2015 Sep 21.
Rectourinary fistulae and urinary-cutaneous fistulae are a rare yet devastating complication. Current options for tissue interposition include rectus, gracilis, or gluteal muscle, omentum, or intestine for use in coloanal pull-through procedures. In elderly patients, testicular interposition flaps may be an excellent tissue option to use when vitalized tissue is necessary to supplement fistula repair. Elderly patients frequently have increased spermatic cord length, potentially offering a longer flap reach than use of a muscle flap. Additionally, mobilizing one of the testicles and developing it through the external inguinal ring may be a less morbid and less costly procedure than harvesting and tunneling a muscle flap. Longer follow-up and further studies are needed to determine the outcomes of this novel technique.