Urinary Incontinence in Puberty: A Rare Clinical Presentation of the Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich Syndrome

Unusual clinical presentations, pathogenesis and radiological review of Herlin-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome: A case report and literature review

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a rare anomaly of the female urogenital tract characterized by the combination of uterine didelphys, obstructed hemivagina, and ipsilateral renal anomalies. The exact incidence of the syndrome remains unknown, but it has been reported to be 1 per 2000 to 1 per 28,000 women. It is believed that the triad is a mesonephric duct-induced paramesonephric duct anomaly. In majority of the cases with complete hemivaginal obstruction, the pathology is diagnosed after menarche due to retained menstrual flow. While the common clinical presentations are dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, intermenstrual bleeding, and pelvic mass, it can also manifest itself with unusual gastrointestinal and urinary tract symptoms. We present a case of HWW syndrome with gastrointestinal symptoms like worsening constipation and abdominal fullness. The unusual clinical presentation of this syndrome makes diagnosis more challenging. To solve such medical puzzles and prevent complications, detailed history-taking and radiological guidance are critical.

Síndrome de Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich: reporte de caso y revisión de la literatura

Objetivo:

Presentar un reporte de caso de síndrome de Herlyn Werner Wunderlich (SHWW) y hacer una revisión de la literatura para determinar los hallazgos clínicos e imagenológicos en estas pacientes.

Materiales y métodos:

Se presenta el caso de una mujer de 16 años que consultó, en un hospital de las fuerzas militares en Bogotá, por dolor pélvico recurrente, su diagnostico final fue SHWW. Se realizó una búsqueda sistemática de la literatura en las diferentes bases de datos, revisiones sistemáticas, cohortes, series de casos y reportes de casos en pacientes con diagnóstico de SHWW en cualquier edad, se obtuvo información sobre las características de presentación clínica, y las tecnologías diagnósticas más frecuentemente utilizadas. Se hace resumen narrativo de los hallazgos.

Resultados:

Se incluyeron 77 publicaciones, un total de 676 pacientes. Los síntomas más frecuentes fueron dismenorrea (63,9 %), seguido de dolor pélvico (35,2%). Las tecnologías diagnósticas más utilizadas fueron el ultrasonido pélvico en un 92,1% y la resonancia magnética nuclear en un 74,6% de los casos. La histeroscopia y laparoscopia son poco utilizados en el diagnóstico.

Conclusión:

El SHWW es una entidad poco frecuente, debe hacer parte del estudio complementario de la agenesia renal del paciente pediátrico y del diagnóstico diferencial de la dismenorrea primaria en pacientes en la adolescencia. Se requiere evaluar con estudios de cohorte más grandes la utilidad de la histeroscopia en estas pacientes.

An unusual appearance of the post-pubertal Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome with acute abdominal pain: A case report

Background

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a rare congenital urogenital defect. It is detected by unilateral low vaginal obstruction, uterus didelphys, and ipsilateral kidney agenesis. It usually becomes apparent with pain, dysmenorrhea, and presence of a vaginal or pelvic mass. Purulent vaginal discharge may also happen rarely because of infective complications of the obstructed hemivagina. In this report, we describe a post-pubertal case with acute abdominal pain.

Case

The patient was a 13-yr-old girl who was referred to us with acute abdominal pain one year after the onset of her menarche. In the pelvic examination, we detected hematocolpos. Abdominopelvic-computed tomography scan confirmed the presence of mullerian duct anomalies with uterus didelphys. This case of HWW syndrome along with pyocolpus was managed by vaginal septum resection, drainage of pus, and salpingectomy.

Conclusion

The symptoms of HWW syndrome should be monitored in early puberty to prevent more complications.

Urinary presentations of a posttraumatic vaginal septum in a 14-year-old girl

Obstructing lesions of vagina, such as transverse vaginal septum, are rare anomalies. In this paper, we report a case of posttraumatic transverse vaginal septum. The patient was a 14-year-old girl who had a transverse vaginal septum because of repaired perineal trauma happened during earthquake that hit Bam city of Iran, when she was three years old. Post-traumatic vaginal septum had resulted in development of a massive hematometra. To our knowledge, this is the first report of urinary incontinence due to massive hematometra, which resulted from a posttraumatic vaginal septum. The rareness and diversity of clinical presentations of vaginal obstructing lesions can lead to misdiagnosis. The patient might refer to different medical and surgical specialists. So, knowing the symptoms is necessary for its early diagnosis. The probability of vaginal obstructing lesions in peripubertal girls with lower urinary tract symptoms should always be considered.

A rare case of pelvic pain caused by Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich Syndrome in an adult: A case report

INTRODUCTION

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich Syndrome (HWWs) is a rare congenital anomaly. This abnormality has 5% percentage of the total Mullerian dysgenesis. The symptomatic patients come with varies condition, such as urinary incontinence, urinary retention endometriosis, pelvic infection and acute pelvic pain. Here we present investigation and management of HWWs with pelvic pain in adult woman.

PRESENTATION OF CASE

A 23 years old woman came with pelvic pain. We found abnormalities of HWW syndrome i.e. uterus didelphys with obstructed hemivagina and right renal agenesis through ultrasound imaging, CT scan and MRI. After concluding the diagnosis, the patient underwent vaginal septum excision and vaginoplasty procedures to relieve obstruction which was the cause of pelvic pain. The symptom was improved after surgery and she felt no more pain after a year of follow up.

DISCUSSION

The main symptom of HWWs is dysmenorrhea associated with obstruction mass or endometriosis. MRI with capability of tissue differentiation is the gold standard for diagnostic. The primary purpose of surgery is to release the obstruction and to prevent further complication.

CONCLUSION

Rarely, HWWs causes an acute pelvic pain with secondary cystic mass finding. Surgery aimed to release obstruction will improve this symptom.