ISSN: 2161-0932
Ileogben Sunday-Adeoye, Ehikioya Isikhuemen, Kenneth Ekwedigwe and Babafemi Daniyan
Background: Ureteric catheterization is extensively used in various urological procedures including ureteroneocystostomy. The standard ureteric stents are usually expensive, difficult to access and of variable quality in our setting. Infant feeding tubes have been used in similar low resource setting as ureteral stents. This study seeks to document our experience with the use of infant feeding tubes as ureteric catheters with respect to their complications and outcome.
Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted at the National Obstetric Fistula Centre, Abakaliki, Nigeria from January 2014 to April 2016. The records of 23 women who had ureteroneocystostomy were available for review. Ethical clearance to review casenotes was obtained for the study. Infant feeding tube was improvised as ureteric stents to achieve ureteric patency following ureteroneocystostomy. The infant feeding tube was inserted through the bladder into the neo ureteric orifice in each patient which was then connected to the eye of a urethral catheter.
Results: All 23 women reviewed in this study had ureteric fistula. Their mean age was 33.8 ± 8.8 years. A total of 13 patients (56.5%) had right ureteroneocystostomy while 10 (43.5%) had left ureteroneocystostomy. All patients had the infant feeding tube for 7 to 10 days. All 23 patients had successful ureteroneocystostomy and the postoperative period was unremarkable. They were followed up for a period of six months and remained dry.
Conclusion: In patients with ureteric fistula, infant feeding tubes which are readily available in our environment appear to be effective when used as modified ureteric stents following ureteroneocystostomy.