Exstrophy of Urinary Bladder

THE PROBLEM of the management of exstrophy of the bladder is incompletely solved. From our experience with reconstruction in six such cases, I make this brief progress report with the hope that others, having access to more patients and/or research facilities, will hasten the solution of this enormous surgical challenge. The building of a complete and functioning lower urinary tract by plastic operations in cases of exstrophy of the urinary bladder with epispadias is admittedly a difficult undertaking, but feel that it can be accomplished. The we is not editorial but literal, since I feel strongly that this is a problem calling for teamwork; I feel fortunate that I have had as colleagues in most of these cases Dr. Tague Chisholm, pediatric surgeon, Drs. Willis Thompson and Eldon Berglund, pediatricians, and Dr. Stanley Wesolowski, anesthesiologist. We cannot accept the defeatist attitude which has led most authorities in recent years