OVERLAPPING ANAL-SPHINCTER REPAIR FOR FECAL INCONTINENCE DUE TO SPHINCTER TRAUMA - 5-YEAR FOLLOW-UP FUNCTIONAL RESULTS

Disruption of the anal sphincter results from obstetric injury, ano-re ctal operations or external trauma. Obstetric or surgical division of the sphincteric mechanism may not be immediately apparent and the clin ical presentation of incontinence may occur several years later [1, 2] . Reconstruction of the sphincter using a fascial sling or direct end- to-end repair of the disrupted sphincter result in a high failure rate . Failure after direct end-to-end repair is usually caused by break do wn of the suture line owing to retraction of the muscle ends [3]. Park s advocated an overlapping repair [4] in which the disrupted ends of t he sphincter were mobilised and wrapped around each other. This paper reports the results of overlapping sphincter repair for faecal inconti nence resulting from trauma, after a 5 year follow-up period.