Objectives: Ureteral injuries may occur subsequent to abdominal or laparoscopic hysterectomy. In total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH), we usually check for ureteral damage by confirming urinary outflow from the bilateral ureteral orifices by cystoscopy after vaginal stump suture. In this work, we investigated the causes of urine outflow disruption after TLH.
Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective review of all TLHs performed for benign diseases at our hospital from February 2012 to March 2016. There were 11 cases with no or poor urine outflow from the ureteral orifice after vaginal stump suture. For these cases, we assessed the treatment to recover urine outflow and examined the cases with intraoperative manipulation. EZR version 1.25 was used for statistical analysis. Correlation coefficients were calculated with Spearman's rank correlation coefficient test.
Results: The abnormality was on the right and left sides in seven and four cases, respectively. In all cases, apart from one, urine outflow was recovered by removing the sutures at the affected side, where the initial suture had included a small amount of the connective tissue near the urinary bladder. It was inferred that ureteral deviation due to vaginal stump sutures that picked up the connective tissue near the ureter caused ureteral peristaltic disorder and abnormal ureteral orifice outflow.
Conclusion: TLH without ureter isolation requires sufficient separation of the bladder from the anterior vaginal wall and careful vaginal stump suture without involving the bladder-side tissue to avoid ureteral injury.
Keywords: Cystoscopy; hysterectomy; laparoscopy; ureter.
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