Free autogenous muscle transplantation in the treatment of urinary incontinence in children: background, surgical technique and preliminary results.

Urinary incontinence owing to epispadias or bladder exstrophy is a difficult therapeutic problem. To improve the results a new method, including free autogenous muscle transplantation, was developed. Before transplantation a skeletal muscle (extensor brevis of the foot) is denervated and, 2 weeks later, it is transplanted and placed as a U-sling around the urethra in close contact with normally innervated muscles, which act as reinnervation sources. Two patients showed improvement of continence and increasing bladder capacity from 6 weeks after transplantation. Postoperative cine-studies of micturition demonstrated clearly the functional properties of the transplanted muscle.