Current diagnosis and management of urachal remnants

Purpose: The purposes of this study are to review our experience with patients who were found to have urachal remnants. We discuss their diagnosis and management and we also evaluate post-operative complications in our cohort of patients with this entity.

Methods: We performed a retrospective review of all patients diagnosed with a urachal remnant (UR) between January 2006 and December 2010. Patient variables included age, gender, presenting symptoms and signs, diagnostic modality, and type of urachal remnant. Operative management, post-operative complications, and non-operative follow-up were abstracted.

Results: We identified 103 pediatric patients with either a urachal cyst (n = 38), urachal diverticulum (n = 13), urachal sinus (n = 11), patent urachus (n = 21), or a non-specific atretic urachal remnant (n = 20). Seventy-eight patients had symptomatic URs. Thirty-four symptomatic patients underwent surgical excision of the UR and 44 symptomatic patients were observed. Eighteen URs were incidentally diagnosed in asymptomatic patients, none of whom underwent surgical excision. In 7 patients symptoms could not be determined from the records. No patients with non-specific atretic remnants were operated upon. Nineteen of the observed patients were reimaged subsequently. In fifteen (78.9%) of these patients, the URs had resolved spontaneously. None of the patients who were observed required subsequent excision of the UR. Post-operative complications occurred in 14.7% of patients in whom URs were excised.

Conclusion: Review of our patients diagnosed with URs indicates there is a subset of patients in whom spontaneous resolution could be expected. Complications are not uncommon after surgical excision.