High-dose pelvic irradiation followed by ileal neobladder urinary diversion: complications and long-term results

Abstract

Objective: To determine the risk of post-operative complications in patients receiving high-dose pelvic irradiation before radical cystectomy and urinary diversion.

Patients and methods: Of 300 patients who underwent orthotopic bladder replacement at our institution from 1986 to 1994, 11 patients (mean age 63 years, range 53-74) did so after receiving high-dose pelvic irradiation. The indication for cystectomy and urinary reconstruction was bladder cancer in seven men, prostate cancer in two men and a contracted bladder due to combined external pelvic irradiation and afterloading radiotherapy in two women.

Results: The post-operative course, including the duration of hospital stay, peri-operative complications and early functional results, did not differ from a control group of non-irradiated patients, and no patients died. The mean follow-up was 22 months (range 10-37) and revealed satisfactory results in seven of 11 patients. A neovesicoperitoneal fistula developed in one woman 10 months after surgery and was repaired by laparotomy. A neovesicovaginal fistula led to supravesical urinary diversion in the second woman.

Conclusions: High-dose pelvic irradiation should not be a primary contra-indication for orthotopic urinary diversion using segments of small intestine. For patients who undergo combined external and afterloading radiotherapy, the indication for orthotopic bladder replacement should be considered critically.