The problem of urinary diversion has assumed increasing importance during the past few years. With the development of adequate bowel preparation and the advent of chemotherapeutic agents for the control of upper urinary tract infection, the heretofore prohibitive operative mortality and morbidity following urinary diversion have been reduced to such an extent that the utilization of this procedure need no longer be looked upon as condemning the patient to a life of invalidism followed by early death.
A careful study of the literature of the past 20 years leads one to some interesting conclusions. Irrespective of the method used, one must conclude that the upper urinary tract is rarely completely normal after diversion and that longevity is unquestionably jeopardized to a varying degree. However, one must consider the fact that in conditions in which urinary diversion is employed longevity is already in jeopardy as far as the upper urinary tract