Prolapse of the rectum in young men: treatment with a modified Roscoe Graham operation

Complete rectal prolapse in young Egyptian males: Is schistosomiasis really condemned?

AIM

To investigate the assumption that schistosomiasis is the main cause of rectal prolapse in young Egyptian males.

METHODS

Twenty-one male patients between ages of 18 and 50 years with complete rectal prolapse were included in the study out of a total 29 patients with rectal prolapse admitted for surgery at Colorectal Surgery Unit, Ain Shams University hospitals between the period of January 2011 and April 2014. Patients were asked to fill out a specifically designed questionnaire about duration of the prolapse, different bowel symptoms and any past or present history of schistosomiasis. Patients also underwent flexible sigmoidoscopy and four quadrant mid-rectal biopsies documenting any gross or microscopic rectal pathology. Data from questionnaire and pathology results were analyzed and patients were categorized according to their socioeconomic class.

RESULTS

Twelve patients (57%) never contracted schistosomiasis and were never susceptible to the disease, nine patients (43%) had history of the disease but were properly treated. None of the patients had gross rectal polyps and none of the patients had active schistosomiasis on histopathological examination. Fifteen patients (71%) had early onset prolapse that started in childhood, majority before the age of 5 years. Thirteen patients (62%) were habitual strainers, and four of them (19%) had straining dating since early childhood. Four patients (19%) stated that prolapse followed a period of straining that ranged between 8 mo and 2 years. Nine patients (43%) in the present study came from the low social class, 10 patients (48%) came from the working class and 2 patients (9%) came from the low middle social class.

CONCLUSION

Schistosomiasis should not be considered the main cause of rectal prolapse among young Egyptian males. Childhood prolapse that continues through adult life is likely involved. Childhood prolapse probably results from malnutrition, recurrent parasitic infections and diarrhea that induce straining and prolapse, all are common in lower socioeconomic classes.

Schistosomal pelvic floor myopathy contributes to the pathogenesis of rectal prolapse in young males

PURPOSE

Rectal prolapse is common in young males in Egypt. The role of schistosomiasis in the pathogenesis of rectal prolapse is not clearly defined. The purpose of this work is to study changes in the pelvic floor muscles in patients of rectal prolapse associated with schistosomiasis.

METHODS

This study included 33 male patients with rectal prolapse of whom 27 patients with schistosomiasis and 6 patients free from schistosomiasis. Biopsies were taken from the pelvic floor muscle during surgery. The prepared sections were examined for histopathologic structural changes, for ultrastructural changes (by using electron microscopy) and after immunohistochemical staining by using anti-IgG and anti-IgM antibodies.

RESULTS

The muscles from the patients without schistosomiasis had no histologic or EM changes and showed negative staining for IgG and IgM. Myopathic changes were found in the group of patients with schistosomiasis, including increased variation in the fiber diameter in 66.6 percent of patients, degenerative changes in 59.26 percent of patients, fiber splitting and fragmentation in 44.4 percent of patients, and endomysial fatty changes in 55.5 percent of patients. Ultrastructural study revealed starting loss of striation and margination of the nucleus in 70.37 percent of patients, distorted myofibrillar pattern in 51.85 percent of patients, disturbed endoplasmic reticulum and increased glycogen granules in all patients, the mitochondria are irregularly arranged with electron dense matrix in 40.74 percent of patients, and prominent nuclear sap in 13.72 percent of patients. The muscles of all the schistosomal patients showed a positive cytoplasmic staining for immunoglobulin G, of them only 12 patients showed positive staining for IgM.

CONCLUSION

Patients with schistosomiasis suffer from pelvic floor myopathic changes that may contribute to the pathogenesis of rectal prolapse in young males. The immunohistochemical findings suggest immunologic mechanism for this myopathy.

Observations upon the aetiology and treatment of complete rectal prolapse

The classical abnormalities found in patients with complete rectal prolapse--wide deep pelvic peritoneal pouch, unsupported redundant rectum with long mesorectum, weak pelvic floor and anal sphincters--are probably effects rather than causes. "Pelvic floor weakness" must explain few cases, since old age, multiparity, uterine prolapse, are found in a minority. The fact that operations which do no more than fix the rectum in the sacral hollow are most successful and often cure incontinence if present is the best evidence that lack of support of the rectum is a prime cause of prolapse--but it is equally likely that such operations work by preventing intussusception, now regarded as the likely mechanism (rather than sliding herniation) of complete rectal prolapse. It is suggested that rectal prolapse is usually due to straining at defaecation against a closed levator-ani--anal-sphincter mechanism, producing prolapse of the rectum rather than incontinence of faeces. Such straining may be obsessive on the part of patients with psychosocial problems and reduced awareness that the rectum is empty; or it may be due to attempted defaecation with a full rectum in patients with reduced rectal sensation, failure of the afferent arc of the ano-rectal reflex and consequent absence of levator-ani--anal-sphincter relaxation.