Continent urostomy with hydraulic ileal valve in 136 patients: 13 years of experience.

The hydraulic ileal valve, which we developed in 1975, ensures continence by adapting to 5 different urinary reservoirs. The valve is made by isolating a 14 cm. long intestinal loop with the mesentery. The isolated ileal segment then is folded inward on itself throughout its entire length. We performed 136 continent urostomies with this hydraulic valve. An ileocecal reservoir was used in 122 patients, ileum in 8, sigmoid in 1, rectum in 1 and bladder (continent cystostomy) in 4. Indications for continent urostomy were bladder tumor in 55 patients, complex vesicovaginal fistulas in 5, neurogenic bladder in 13, vesical exstrophy in 12 and miscellaneous reasons in 5. Of the patients 103 (75 per cent) were continent immediately. Continence was obtained after repair of the valve in 24 patients (17.6 per cent). Therefore, 127 patients over-all were continent. Mean followup of our patients was 38 months (range 3 to 154 months). Continence remained excellent with self-catheterization performed easily in 88.3 per cent of the patients. Over-all, all of our continent urostomies were well tolerated biologically and radiologically.