Colorectal Quiz Episode 24: Cloaca Part 3
With Dr. Mark Levitt & Dr. Richard Wood · hosted by Dr. Amanda Jensen · StayCurrentMD
Cued at 3:47 · stops at 4:32 · press play
Educational content from recorded physician discussions — not medical advice. Talk to your (or your child's) care team about your situation.
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What the experts said
About 30 to 50% of children with cloacal malformations will develop long-term renal dysfunction.
The protocol has resulted in a significant reduction in the need for redo surgeries, likely because surgeons can define anatomy preoperatively and decide whether to proceed or refer.
Common channel length less than 3 centimeters sets up the possibility for total urogenital mobilization (TUM), but requires adequate urethral length of 1.5 centimeters or greater.
Common channel greater than 3 centimeters almost always means a urogenital separation is required.
When performing TUM, the rectum often reaches even when high, with good mobilization of the urogenital complex.
Lateral attachments posteriorly on the vagina, where the blood supply lies, represent an important safe plane for TUM mobilization.
Full mobilization into the peritoneum is necessary to adequately release the rectum and visualize vaginal attachments during TUM.
For TUM, the common channel is opened widely until the urethral and vaginal openings are clearly visible, often requiring opening into the vagina.
Remeasuring the common channel intraoperatively after opening it is important to confirm preoperative measurements and ensure TUM is still appropriate.
After TUM mobilization, the common channel is split down the middle, with the two sides becoming the labia minora.
For TUM, full-thickness lateral dissection is essential; inadequate dissection causes the common channel to fall apart and leaves poor tissue for suturing.
The common channel should be divided approximately 0.5 centimeters behind the clitoral tissue to avoid damaging nerve supply.
Anterior dissection for TUM requires reaching the retropubic fat and incising the whitish fascia, which releases the complex and gains about 2 to 2.5 centimeters of length.
A short common channel almost always has a good length urethra, though occasionally a short urethra occurs with a low common channel.
Performing TUM in a patient with a short urethra results in the bladder neck at the perineum, which is a miserable result.
When the vagina is the most posterior structure in a cloacal malformation, it is often stuck to the presacral fascia and more difficult to mobilize than the rectum.
For urogenital separation, the common channel should NOT be opened; only a small meatoplasty (1-2 mm) is made to slip in a catheter.
During posterior sagittal separation, stay very midline because ureters are coming in from the sides.
Leaving a little cuff of vaginal tissue during separation allows urology to achieve a really nice urethral closure without tension.
In higher common channel cases, the ureters often come quite close to the bladder neck, requiring careful mapping during surgery.
Once dissection reaches within 0.5 centimeters of where the ureters are, no more separation should be done safely from the posterior sagittal approach.
Placing ureteric stents via cystoscopy prior to laparoscopic separation provides reassurance about ureter location during dissection.
During laparoscopic separation, scissors with minimal or no cautery are used for the actual separation to avoid thermal injury to the urethra.
Laparoscopic dissection appears to result in fewer vaginal replacements, possibly due to better visualization deep in the pelvis.
Vaginal length is the most significant predictor of need for vaginal replacement; vaginas less than 4 cm are much more likely to need replacement, while those over 6 cm are much less likely.
After implementing double-layer urethral repair with SIS and fat pad interposition, no urethrovaginal fistulas have occurred in 5.5 years.
The vagina tends to envelop the bladder neck during separation, unlike the rectum in male repairs which stays in its lane, requiring careful circumferential dissection.
The most important aspect of preventing urethrovaginal fistula is giving a little cuff of tissue to allow a nice urethral repair with good mucosa and no tension.
Using the protocol with preserved common channel, 97% of patients maintain a catheterizable urethra.
Maintaining perineal access to the bladder is valuable even if a Mitrofanoff is eventually needed, as it provides a pop-off that allows patients to empty.
Attempting TUM first and then converting to separation is dangerous because anterior urethral dissection during TUM can compromise blood supply, potentially leaving the patient with no functional urethra if separation is then needed.
Since implementing the measurement protocol, surgeons have never encountered a cloacal anatomy that differed from preoperative expectations.