Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Jun 5, 2021
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 5, 2021 - Jul 31, 2021
Date Accepted: Sep 10, 2021
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Buccal Mucosal Grafts: Novel Treatment for the Repair of Rectovaginal Fistulas A Study Protocol
ABSTRACT
Background:
Rectovaginal fistulas (RVFs) are abnormal communications between the rectum/anus and the vagina. They are most frequently a result of obstetric injury and have deleterious impacts on patients’ quality of life. Despite several treatment modalities, RVFs remain difficult problems to manage, and many patients fail multiple attempts at surgical repair. Buccal mucosal grafts (BMGs) may be a solution to this problem. A BMG is oral mucosal tissue harvested from the inner cheek. There are two case reports that describe the successful use of BMGs in the repair of RVFs.
Objective:
Our objective is to validate these findings with a prospective case series, while also addressing key issues of indication, technical details, procedure safety, and short-term outcomes.
Methods:
Our objective is to validate these findings with a prospective case series, while also addressing key issues of indication, technical details, procedure safety, and short-term outcomes.
Results:
Two previous case reports have described the successful use of BMGs in the repair of RVFs. We have received ethics approval to attempt to validate these findings through a prospective case series.
Conclusions:
Rectovaginal fistulas cause significant patient morbidity and are difficult problems to manage. Bolstered by the successful use of BMGs in urologic surgery and the previously published case reports demonstrating success in RVFs, we believe that BMGs may be a solution to RVFs.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.