A new simple procedure for the treatment of vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) by cystoscopic injection of blood into the submucosa of the ureteral orifice is reported.
Preoperative cystourethrography exhibited bilateral VUR in one adolescent female dog, but no VUR in 14 adult female dogs. The adolescent dog was operated upon when it grew up and VUR disappeared. Cystourethrography was performed in the supine, and right and left lateral positions, because the frequency of the presence of VUR was different among these three positions. Artificial VUR was produced by opening the bladder, slitting the anterior roof of the mucosal ureter, and suturing the divided mucosal edges. Approximately one month after creation of the artificial reflux, cystourethrography was carried out to confirm the presence of VUR in all 10 dogs. Five dogs died during or immediately after the operation of VUR production.
An endoscopic needle was inserted about 1.2cm below the widely opened ureteral orifice, and heparinized blood was injected until the submucosal swelling was sufficiently large. Then Indigocarmime
® was injected intravenously, which was seen to trickle into the bladder through the ureteral orifice. Before the needle was drawn out, small amounts of Thrombin and Protamine were injected of prevent the leakage of blood. The procedures were performed on only one side, and the other side was followed up as the control.
Four to six weeks after the injection of blood, cystourethrography was done to determine the presence or absence of VUR. If VUR persisted, the above procedure was repeated. Cystourethrography showed the absence of VUR in 3 dogs after the first injection, in 2 dogs after the second injection, and in 2 dogs after the third injection. Three dogs had persistence of VUR after the second injection. These dogs were not given the third injection and were used to study the histopathological appearance of the uretervesical injection in the unsuccessful cases. Postoperative IVP with 76% Urografin
® 1ml/kg body weight showed no evidence of ureteral obstruction. VUR of the control side did not disappear spontaneously. The recurrence of VUR was seen in only one dog 6 months after the second injection. This recurrence was successfully treated after further injection. The dogs were followed up for an average period of 14 months.
Histological examination of the vesicouretural junction showed that there were remarkable submucosal swelling, mild inflammation, and fibrosis of the bladder muscle in the cured cases. The changes were not observed in cases which did not respond to the treatment.
This study shows that it is technically feasible to correct VUR by intravesical injection of blood. The advantage of the method consists in the fact that the injection is easy to repeat without stressing the patients. The reasons of the failure were probably a leakage of blood after withdrawing the needle, or the needle passing the bladder wall, and blood not being correctly located in the submucosal and intramuscular sheath, because, after Thrombin and Protamine were used on the way of the experiment, the results became better.
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