CANINE MODEL FOR TREATMENT OF FECAL INCONTINENCE USING TRANSPOSED ANDELECTRICALLY STIMULATED SARTORIUS MUSCLE

A neosphincter was successfully created around each end of a Thiry-Vel la loop in five dogs using transposed sartorius muscle to study new tr eatments for faecal incontinence. One of these dynamic neosphincters i n each dog was electrically trained for 8 weeks while the other served as a control. Muscle biopsies demonstrated an increase in type 1 fati gue-resistant fibres from a median of 49 (range 37-54) per cent before electrical stimulation to 78 (range 53-99) per cent 8 weeks later in the stimulated sartorius neosphincters (P<0.05), whereas the percentag e of type 1 fibres in control neosphincters increased only slightly. R etention times of saline increased from a median of 10 (range 5-50)s b efore to 340 (range 100-470)s after electrical stimulation (P<0.05) bu t also increased in control neosphincters (to 370 (range 330-1200) s); this may indicate that electrical stimulation immediately increases a cute retention times. It is concluded that construction of a neosphinc ter is technically feasible with preservation of muscle morphology and that stimulation induces morphological and functional changes towards the characteristics of the external anal sphincter.