Successful laparoscopic repair of uterine and rectal prolapse in an infant

Abstract

Neonatal or infantile uterine prolapse is a quite rare condition and is usually managed with conservative treatment. There is no standard surgical treatment for infantile uterine prolapse, and to the best of our knowledge, only 2 out of 30 patients suffering from it have been reported to undergo surgical repair in English literature since 1961. We here report the first successful case of laparoscopic repair for uterine prolapse in an infant. The patient was a 2-month old girl who had sacral myelomeningocele and Chiari type 2 malformation. She had undergone closure of myelomeningocele and ventriculoperitoneal shunting within 6 weeks after birth. At 7 weeks of age, the rectum and the uterus prolapsed, and the prolapse gradually deteriorated. Conservative treatments including repeated digital reduction, use of ointment and glycerin enema, and placement of a Foley catheter into the vagina were not effective. At the age of 100 days, she underwent laparoscopic hysteropexy and rectopexy. Three ports were placed on the umbilicus and the bilateral abdomen, and the bilateral mesovaria were sutured to the anterior abdominal wall to improve the visualization of the pelvis. The rectum and the uterine body were directly sutured to the sacral promontory with 2 non-absorbable braided sutures each, not using mesh prosthesis. The postoperative course was uneventful and neither uterine nor rectal prolapse has recurred for 2.5 years. We plan to follow up the patient for a long period since the long-term prognosis is not known.

Keywords

• Uterine prolapse
• Rectal prolapse
• Genital prolapse
• Hysteropexy
• Rectopexy
• Laparoscopy