Combined abdominal and vaginal approach for bladder neck closure and permanent suprapubic tube: urinary diversion in the neurologically impaired woman.

Chronic indwelling Foley catheter placement in the neurologically impaired patient can lead to pressure necrosis of the urethra with incontinence. We report on 2 series of patients who underwent bladder neck closure and insertion of a suprapubic catheter for this problem. Our initial group includes 4 patients who underwent 5 transvaginal procedures, of which 2 (40%) were successful. Subsequently, we modified our approach, and used a combined abdominal and transvaginal repair, which was successful in 10 consecutive patients with a followup of 6 to 40 months (mean 15.6).