Exstrophy Anomalies: Preliminary Review Of 18 Cases In Maiduguri, North-Eastern Nigeria

Background: Exstrophy anomalies, although rare, pose a tremendous challenge to both surgeons and surrogates. Management is intricate and experience with large members is restricted to a few centres worldwide. This report is a review of 18 cases of these anomalies managed in University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) over 8 years, highlighting the intricacies of management, and contributes to the existing data bank on this subject matter in our environment.Materials and Methods: We reviewed the records of all cases of anomalies that were managed in the index hospital from December 2002 to December 2010.Results: Eighteen cases were studied. The youngest was a 2-day-old neonate and the oldest was 6 years at repair, with a median age of 4 months. There were 7 boys and 9 girls with bladder exstrophy, and the remaining two were girls with cloacal exstrophy, giving a male-female ratio of 7:11 for the exstrophy anomalies. Eight patients (33.5%) had associated congenital anomalies; 16.7% had undescended testes (UDT), anorectal malformation (ARM) and patent processus vaginalis (PPV); and duplicate bladder occurred in 5.6% of the patients. All but one patient had bilateral posterior iliac osteotomy at bladder closure. Out of the 17 patients that had osteotomy, 76.5% had satisfactory bladder closure (no complication), 5.9% had superficial wound dehiscence, 11.8% had bladder neck dehiscence and 5.9% had complete disruption. The lone patient that did not undergo osteotomy had complete bladder dehiscence. Postoperative immobilization was done for 3 weeks for 16 cases; one was discontinued after 1 week because of complication. The longest follow-up was for 2 years and the shortest for 2 weeks. Four patients (22.2%) did not turn up for follow-up.Conclusion: Exstrophy anomalies although rare remain a major challenge in paediatric surgery. Iliac osteotomy, among other technical considerations, remains a cornerstone for successful bladder closure.