In search of the optimal operation for rectal prolapse: the saga continues…

Excerpt

There have been many radical shifts in the surgical management of rectal prolapse over the past 140 years, a metaphorical seesaw between perineal and abdominal operations. St. Mark’s Hospital has played a major role in the surgical management of this disorder following the first case report of perineal proctectomy by Auffret (Brest, France) in 1882 and a small case series of Mikulicz (Konigsborg, Prussia) in 1889, leading to the extensive experience of Miles (St. Mark’s, London) with perineal proctectomy, an operation that dominated the first half of the twentieth century, so much so that another St. Mark’s surgeon, William Gabriel, suggested the operation be known as the “rectosigmoidectomy- Auffret-Mikulicz-Miles procedure” [1]. …