Use of artificial sphincter to bowel segment using rectus muscle interposition.

The use of artificial urinary sphincter around the urethra or bladder neck for the management of urinary incontinence secondary to intrinsic urethral sphincter deficiency is now well accepted. However, its use around the bowel to serve as a sphincter in urinary pouches is still anecdotal. Its use in experimental models has been met with failure because of ischemic bowel necrosis at the cuff site. To obviate these difficulties, a new technique was devised using a flap of rectus muscle that acted as a cushion between the cuff and the bowel wall. Results in five dogs showed that bowel wall ischemia is avoided with cuff pressure of 51-60 cm applied constantly for four weeks while providing pressure to leak around the closed cuff with a pressure of 62-75 cm water. Further study is needed to confirm the long-term effect of this technique on the bowel wall and the ability of the sphincter to maintain continence.