Application of medical patches in artificial vaginoplasty

‍ Congenital absence of the vagina (Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome) is the result of paramedian duct hypoplasia during embryonic development. It is characterized by normal female karyotype, normal general growth and female secondary sexual characteristics, absence of vagina, absence of uterus or only the primordial uterus, and normal ovarian development and function. The main treatment for congenital anovagina is surgery. The basic principle is to create an artificial cavity between the urethra and the rectum and apply different materials to reconstruct the vagina. The development of artificial vaginoplasty has lasted for more than 100 years and there are more than 20 different procedures, such as amniotic membrane, sigmoid vaginal substitution, peritoneal vaginoplasty and vestibular mucosal lift vaginoplasty. Although each of these surgical procedures has its own characteristics, there are some unsatisfactory points: the intestinal method has disadvantages such as anastomotic fistula, large amount of vaginal discharge and odor; the mucosalization of vaginal wall formed by amniotic and peritoneal methods takes a long time and requires a long time to wear vaginal molds; the flap method has shortcomings such as postoperative hair growth, flap prolapse and scarring of the donor area, and the therapeutic effect and safety are less reported, and some of the procedures are performed in the The surgical scars on the abdomen and other parts of the body affect the aesthetics and the privacy of the patient’s disease. In recent years, allogeneic decellular dermal matrix (ADM) has been used for vaginoplasty as an emerging material for wound repair, which is a natural biomaterial scaffold with small genetic differences, weak antigenicity, good biocompatibility and biodegradability. As a natural biomaterial scaffold, it has the advantages of low genetic variation, low antigenicity, good biocompatibility and biodegradability, and less likely to cause immune rejection in the host. The basic procedure of vaginoplasty using biopatch: the rectal-cyst space is separated in a negative way to form an artificial vaginal cavity (without penetrating the pelvis), and a 10 cm x 8 cm biopatch (decellularized dermis) is sutured into the vaginal cavity in the shape of a tube, the outer edge is interrupted with the incision margin of the vaginal opening, and a vaginal mold is placed to complete the procedure. The procedure is simple and quick, taking only about 30 minutes, and does not affect the pelvic anatomy or bowel function. The surface of the vaginal mucosa is smooth and less prone to inflammation, the vagina is flexible, the vaginal mold is easy to change, and the wound heals well. In the surgical treatment of congenital anovagina, AMG is applied to the inner wall of the cavity to obtain a soft and elastic mucosa close to the natural vagina, while greatly reducing the difficulty and time of the operation. It reduces the pain caused by traditional surgery. It also greatly reduces the occurrence of complications and rejection reactions. Married patients have a high satisfaction rate of sexual life after surgery. The continuous development of tissue engineering material technology is driving the improvement of clinical treatment methods, and AMG should be the material of choice for vaginoplasty. ‍