Use of the stomach for bladder replacement and urinary diversion.

The current methods of urinary diversion and bladder replacement have many drawbacks. The pyloric antrum of the stomach was chosen for this purpose because of its good blood supply, relatively poorly absorbing mucosa, acidification of urine, and good contractility. This was first tried out in dogs with extremely encouraging results in the form of both bladder replacement and conduits. Since 1969 these techniques have been applied to human clinical use. Extensive postoperative studies have shown that the pyloric antrum functions well in the urinary tract and that its use for bladder replacement and urinary diversion is probably superior to other recognised methods for these purposes.