Surgical treatment of complete rectal prolapse.

The Ripstein procedure was used to effect a cure of rectal procidentia in 30 patients. There was no operative mortality, and morbidity was confined to problems related to two patients with intestinal obstruction, one with fecal impaction, and one with wound infection. We believe the operation to be the treatment of choice in patients to control the anatomic and clinical abnormalities related to rectal procidentia. Associated colonic abnormalities, such as an extremely redundant sigmoid or associated diverticulitis, may dictate the choice of a different procedure that does not require introduction of a foreign material.