Management of partial vaginal agenesis according to the Wharton-Sheares-George technique – a long-term follow-up

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the long-term follow-up of treatment of congenital partial vaginal agenesis using the Wharton-Sheares-George technique. The technique was performed on 52 patients with congenital partial vaginal atresia from January 2009 to December 2017. As a result, the mean operating time of the Wharton-Sheares-George technique procedure was 25.6 ± 2.2 min. The mean estimated blood loss was 16.7 ± 4.7 mL. The average length of stay in hospital for the patients was 2.3 ± 0.2 days. There were no intraoperative and postoperative complications. The median duration of follow-up was 58 months. All of the patients experienced a resumption of menses. The mean vaginal length at 3 months was 7.3 ± 0.8 cm. Vaginal stenosis and adhesion did not occur in any cases during the follow-up. Twenty patients had sexual activities and the mean value of the FSFI questionnaire was 31.2 ± 4.0. Six cases became pregnant. There were four cases who each delivered one child and two cases who both delivered two children.IMPACT STATEMENTWhat is already known on this subject? It has been reported that the Wharton-Sheares-George technique provides, functionally and anatomically, very satisfactory results for the patients with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome. However, a study of the Wharton-Sheares-George technique in patients with congenital partial vaginal agenesis has not been reported previously in the medical literature.What the results of this study add? Our results have indicated that the Wharton-Sheares-George technique provides short operation time and length of stay, little blood loss intraoperatively, a satisfactory vaginal length and sexual activity in patients with congenital partial vaginal agenesis.What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? The study suggests that the Wharton-Sheares-George technique provides very satisfactory results in function and anatomy for congenital partial vaginal agenesis.