Objectives: To report five spontaneous ruptures in 4 patients. Spontaneous late rupture of orthotopic ileal bladder replacements is a rare complication of continent urinary diversion.
Methods: Four recurrence-free patients aged 36 to 68 years experienced apparently spontaneous rupture of continent orthotopic ileal bladder replacement 3 months to 3 years after curative radical cystectomy and urinary diversion for invasive bladder cancer. Ileal bladder rupture occurred twice in 1 patient with an interval of 9 months.
Results: All 4 patients had had a good result from their diversion procedure and had reported complete day and nighttime continence before the spontaneous rupture. The spontaneous rupture was evidently caused by overdistension of the ileal neobladder in four of five instances. In addition to overdistension, a second factor such as minor blunt abdominal trauma or urethral occlusion was identifiable in two instances. The rupture occurred in the right upper corner of the ileal bladder in four of five instances and led to acute and severe abdominal pain. Cystography was done in three instances, but was diagnostic in only 2 cases. The histologic examination of the excised bladder wall margins revealed nonspecific inflammatory changes in 3 cases. Open surgical drainage and repair was successfully undertaken in all cases.
Conclusions: The circumstances of the cases described suggest that late spontaneous rupture of an orthotopic ileal bladder replacement is not related to the surgical technique but rather to factors of patient compliance and medical management.