Suspensory Apparatus of the Vagina -⁠ ContemporaryAspect

Overview

Objective:
To describe vaginal support levels according to the DeLancey’s classification, theirappearance in transversal magnetic resonance images and clinical categories caused by theirdefects.Design: Review.Setting: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1st Medical Faculty, Charles University, Pra-gue; Department of Radiodiagnostics, Charles University, Medical Faculty in Hradec Králové.Methods: A review of literature, examinations of female pelvis with magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) and 3 dimensional computer reconstructions were made.Results: We performed 20 MRI studies and 5 computer spatial reconstructions of female pelvis.Selected results of a review of literature and our MRI examinations were correlated with varioustypes of vaginal descensus.Conclusions: The questions about the supporting structures of female vagina are still not fullyanswered. Great advance was achieved by some recent pathological studies and by the introduc-tion of modern magnetic resonance units in this field. The DeLancey’s classification goes well inaccord with clinical examination, imaging methods and cadaver studies.

Key words:
vagina, anatomy, magnetic resonance, female, modeling, cystocele