Complications in transgender patients undergoing vaginoplasty procedure.

Abstract

Objective: To report the statistics of complications in gender reassignment surgery (vaginoplasty) observed in the first surgical center in Mexico for public transgender surgery.

Method: We conducted a descriptive, observational study of patients treated and postoperatively underwent vaginoplasty surgery in the period 2019 to 2022. Intraoperative, immediate and late complications were evaluated. Intraoperative complications were taken as: rectal perforation and bleeding. Immediate complications: wound dehiscence, hematoma, and necrosis of the vaginal segment. Late complications: urethrovaginal fistula, rectovaginal fistula, and stenosis of the vaginal introitus.

Results: Twenty-two patients who underwent vaginoplasty with inversion of the foreskin were evaluated. Regarding immediate complications, the most frequent were alterations in scarring and tissue integration, being necrosis of the vaginal segment the most frequent. As for late complications, only vaginal prolapse and urethral stricture were found.

Conclusion: Foreskin inversion vaginoplasty is the most widely used and safest technique worldwide, above colovaginoplasty and peritoneal vaginoplasty techniques, and fortunately serious complications are rare. In our report, tissue alterations were the common ones and that is secondary alteration of vascular integration and devascularization factors during the dissection.