OUTCOME OF EARLY TRANSABDOMINAL SUPRAPUBIC REPAIR OF VESICOVAGINAL FISTULA SECONDARY TO BENIGN GYNECOLOGICAL AND OBSTETRIC SURGERIES

Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of early operative management of patients with Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) secondary to benign gynecological surgeries. Material and methods: It is a descriptive case series of 70 patients selected from August 2018 to Oct 2022. All patients meeting inclusion criteria had routine lab investigations, imaging, cystoscopy, and vaginoscopy. The suprapubic approach described by O’Conor et al; was used. All surgeries were performed between the 4th and 6th weeks after the onset of the fistula to allow some time for tissue healing. All patients were followed after 2 weeks; a cystogram was performed to document fistula closure followed by removal of Foleys catheter. A second follow-up was at 3 months, patients were assessed with patient global impression of improvement score (PGI-I) for improvement in symptoms. Results: The mean age of the patients was 40.6 ± 10.2 years. 14(19.7%) patients were primipara while 56 (78.9%) patients were multipara. The mean fistula size was 11.5 ± 4.5mm. Supra-trigonal fistulas were more common than trigonal fistulas 43(60.6%) vs 27(38%). Hysterectomy (including cesarean hysterectomy and simple hysterectomy) was the commonest cause of VVF followed by cesarean section and difficult labor 33(46.5% vs 21(29.6) vs 12(16.9%). The overall mean operative time was 125.3 ± 10.7 minutes. The mean hospital stay was 3.8 ± 0.8 days. The fistula was successfully closed in 64 (90.1%) patients while 6 (9.9%) patients had failed surgery. The small-size fistulas (5-10mm) had a higher success rate of closure than larger fistulas (11-20mm) with statistical significance (p=0.02). Over 63 (90 %) patients responded PGI score below 3 with much improvement in symptoms. Conclusion: Our results show that early operative management of VVF secondary to benign gynecological and obstetric surgeries is feasible and effective. It also improves the symptoms of patients with PGI-I score. KEYWORDS: Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF), early repair, hysterectomy.