Presenting and long-term clinical implications and fecundity in females with obstructing vaginal malformations.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate presenting and long-term clinical consequences in females with obstructing vaginal anomalies.

DESIGN: A retrospective study.

SETTING: A university hospital in southern Finland.

PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-six females with obstructing vaginal malformations. The conditions were classified into transverse vaginal obstruction (transverse septum or imperforate hymen) and longitudinal vaginal obstruction (longitudinal vaginal septum). INTERVENTIOS: 13 out of 16 women with transverse vaginal obstruction underwent incision of the imperforate hymen and three underwent excision of a complete transverse vaginal septum. Ten patients with obstructing hemivagina had incision of the longitudinal vaginal septum.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Presenting symptoms and delay in diagnosis, outcome of primary surgical treatment, possible late complaints associated with obstruction, fecundity, perinatal outcome, and presence of other anomalies were studied. The mean followup period in the transverse and longitudinal obstruction group respectively was 13 years (range 1-29) and 16 years (range 1-44).

RESULTS: Transverse vaginal obstructions were diagnosed within less than a month from the primary symptoms, while the diagnosis of longitudinal obstruction was delayed for an average of 27 months. Two out of three females with transverse vaginal septum underwent re-operation for vaginal constriction and three out of 10 with longitudinal vaginal septum had re-excision of the septum. All females with longitudinal obstruction had uterine and renal malformations as opposed to those with transverse vaginal obstruction. In the transverse vaginal obstruction group, two out of the six females who had their renal status assessed had double ureters. Dysfunctional uterine bleeding (19% in the transverse and 40% in the longitudinal obstruction group), dyspareunia (30% and 0%) and dysmenorrhea (19% and 20%) were the most common complaints during the followup. No endometriosis was found in the group that underwent a subsequent laparotomy or laparoscopy (18/26). Female infertility was not found in those 14 females who were attempting to conceive. Twenty-five (89%) out of 28 pregnancies ended in delivery, the live birth rate being 82% in the longitudinal and 94% in the transverse obstruction group.

CONCLUSION: Accurate diagnosis together with adequate treatment may reduce the need for re-operations in cases with obstructing vaginal malformations. No specific gynecologic long-term clinical symptoms were identified in obstructing vaginal anomalies.