Bladder autoaugmentation: early clinical experience.

A surgical technique is described in which detrusor muscle over the entire dome of the bladder is excised while leaving the bladder epithelium intact. A large epithelial bulge is created, which functions to augment the storage properties of the bladder without using bowel, and it is referred to as "autoaugmentation". Seven patients have undergone autoaugmentation of whom 5 have excellent clinical results while 1 has modest improvement. The remaining patient was a technical failure. Postoperative urodynamics in 5 patients demonstrated improved bladder capacity in 3 and markedly improved bladder storage pressures in 4 compared to preoperative studies. The technical aspects of the procedure and patient management are discussed. Autoaugmentation offers potential advantages over enterocystoplasty, is simple to perform, does not preclude future enterocystoplasty if needed and may be a reasonable alternative to conventional augmentation in selected patients.