After the quiet and beautiful girl Jie entered the university, there are constantly boys expressing their affection for her, hoping to have further emotional development. Faced with many suitors, Jie was not happy. It turns out that at the age of 18, she found that she did not have her first menstrual period as scheduled, like other female students in her class. With doubts in her mind, she went to the hospital in the company of her mother, and the test results made her mood hit the bottom. The doctor told her that she was born without a uterus or vagina, which is commonly known as “stone girl”. She would not be able to have children in the future and would not be able to have a normal married life. As she grew older, her teenage feelings put her in a dilemma. She had a man of her choice, but her physical condition did not allow her to accept this love, and she did not dare to confess her feelings to her beloved. With a bitter mood, Jie again sought help from a doctor. After the examination, the doctor told her that she could have a vaginal reconstruction with a biological patch as an alternative material, and she took the doctor’s advice. After careful treatment and psychological counseling, Jie was able to remove her worries and accepted her boyfriend’s advances. Not long ago, Jie not only found an ideal job after graduating from college, but also started a happy life with her boyfriend.
Congenital anovagina is caused by abnormal development of the reproductive system during the embryonic period, with a prevalence of about 1/4000~1/10,000. These patients have normal female psychological and sexual needs as adults, but due to abnormal development of the reproductive system, they cannot have normal sexual and reproductive functions like other women. To make matters worse, the physical defect often leads to psychological disorders, and these patients become eccentric, irritable, and reluctant to socialize due to low self-esteem, which can lead to depression.
There are many methods of vaginal reconstruction. As early as the 1930s, Frank applied a mold to pull up the vestibular mucosa to form a new vagina. For example, free flaps can easily lead to contracture of the vaginal cavity, while tipped flaps can reduce contracture, but the reconstruction of the vagina is more bulky. The biggest disadvantage of these two methods is that they require scarring of the body surface and can be psychologically taxing, especially for young women. Although amniotic vaginal substitutes are available, the amniotic membrane tends to fall off after surgery and the reconstructed vagina is prone to contracture; autologous peritoneal vaginal substitutes often have limited materials, making the reconstructed vagina narrower; sigmoid vaginoplasty may show more vaginal secretions and odor. Choosing a material that is non-invasive to the body and that is closest to the vaginal tissue to reconstruct the vagina is undoubtedly an ideal method.
Biopatch is a biodegradable natural material composed mainly of collagen, fibronectin, mucopolysaccharide and proteoglycan, which in their specific concentrations and active states are able to regulate the repair of the defective tissue. After transplantation into the patient, the cells of the surrounding tissues can rapidly adhere to the surface and enter into the porous structure, while the patch degrades, the tissue cells proliferate and differentiate, and the tissue collagen is deposited, thus promoting the regeneration and reconstruction of the defect area. In addition, as the host tissue grows in, the biological patch gradually degrades, and the two are basically synchronized, and eventually the biological patch is completely replaced by the host tissue to achieve the functional repair of the organ without foreign body residue in the body. After 6-10 months of postoperative recovery, the reconstructed vagina is close to a normal vagina in terms of mucosal color, softness and function.