HOPEWELL : Urinary Diversion

The convenient storage and evacuation of the urine'is essential to a tolerable existence. Surgical methods to restore these functions, 'when they have been lost as a result of congenital abnormality or acquired disease, have mostly been based on the principle of urinary diversion into some part of the intestinal tract, isolated or intact. The history of these attempts is an interesting one, and follows a pattern that has often recurred in the evolution of surgical procedures. Early surgeons planned operations which were logical but which had to be abandoned as impracticable in the surgical context of their day. For many years simpler expedients became accepted as standard practice, until impatience with their defects led to a renewed search for improvements. Schemes that had earlier been rejected were tried again, sometimes indeed claimed as innovations, and proved feasible.