Rectocele Repair (Posterior Colporrhaphy)

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Rectocele repair (posterior colporrhaphy) removes your bowel hernia from the vagina. This procedure can help ease chronic discomfort and difficulty having bowel movements.

Advantages of vaginal reconstructive procedures include:

  • Small vaginal incision, no abdominal incision
  • No hospital stay (same-day surgery or just overnight)
  • Faster post-operative recovery time (average 2-3 weeks or less)

What to Expect

In this outpatient procedure, your surgeon makes an opening in your vagina and reinforces the tissue layer under the vaginal skin with strong sutures. The stitches dissolve over within a few months and don't need to be removed.

Typical recovery for the procedure is 2-3 weeks. Your doctor may prescribe pain medication to make you feel more comfortable. You can expect to resume normal physical activity within hours of your procedure. But you should not have sex until 6 weeks after surgery.

You will have a follow-up appointment with your doctor between 4-6 weeks after surgery.

Possible Surgery Complications

Possible surgery risks include:

  • Bleeding
  • Infection
  • Damage to bowel
  • Pain with intercourse
  • Difficulty with bowel movements
  • Failure of the surgery
  • Blood clot in the legs or lungs (rare)