Dorsal on-lay preputial graft urethroplasty for anterior urethra strictures repair

Dorsolateral inner preputial graft urethroplasty for anterior urethral strictures: long-term outcomes from a single tertiary care centre

Purpose

Buccal mucosa graft (BMG) is long used as favoured substitute by most reconstructive surgeons for substitution urethroplasty (SU). Though inner preputial skin graft (IPG) was described even earlier than BMG, its usage lately has fallen out of favour. The aim of the study was to evaluate the outcome of a SU with IPG from a tertiary care centre.

Methods

A retrospective analysis of prospectively maintained clinical data was conducted at our tertiary care centre enrolling 80 patients with anterior urethral stricture from January 2015 to January 2018. Patients were evaluated for the aetiology, length and site of the urethral stricture. All patients underwent dorsolateral SU with IPG. Post-operative assessment including uroflowmetry and sexual outcomes using IIEF and MSHQ-EJD questionnaires was done at 3 weeks, 3 months, 12 months and half-yearly thereafter. Success was defined by the stable maximum urinary flow value > 14 ml/s or urethral calibration with 16 French Foley catheter.

Results

Mean age of patients was 40 years (18–69). The most common aetiology was post-instrumentation (65%) and 60% had stricture at penobulbar site. Mean stricture length was 65 mm. At a mean follow-up of 48 months (range 30–66 months), successful outcomes were seen in 69/80 (87%). Patients with failure were managed with optical internal urethrotomy (OIU). Uroflowmetry and obstructive symptoms significantly improved and sexual function remained unaffected using IPG for SU.

Conclusions

Preputial graft is a tissue familiar to the urologist, located very close to the surgical field, easily harvested and operated under regional anaesthesia. Overall success outcomes are acceptable to BMG urethroplasty.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00345-021-03613-9.

Dorsal versus ventral strip augmented anastomotic bulbar urethroplasty: retrospective study

PURPOSE

The published literature shows controversies with regard to the treatment of choice for longer stricture. Augmented anastomotic urethroplasty (AAU) was described for long bulbar urethral strictures with an extended area of narrowing and fibrosis, the technique combines the advantages of both anastomosis and graft substitution. We aimed to compare the dorsal and ventral strip anastomosis in the AAU.

METHODS

A retrospective Review was conducted at the Department of Urology, Sohag University Hospital; we included adult patients with long bulbar urethral strictures (> 2 cm) who underwent dorsal or ventral strip AAU. Patients were followed at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively for subjective improvements. The statistical analysis was carried with SPSS software version 24 for windows.

RESULTS

At the end of follow-up, stricture recurrence occurred in 5 (12.5%) in ventral strip group compared to 6 (23.1%) in dorsal group, the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.5). With regard to safety outcomes, there was no statistically significant difference between both groups in any of the postoperative complications, except post-void dribbling which showed higher incidence in dorsal strip group (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, both dorsal strip and ventral strip techniques are feasible for long bulbar urethral strictures with comparable postoperative efficacy outcomes and high success rate.

SIU/ICUD Consultation on Urethral Strictures: The management of anterior urethral stricture disease using substitution urethroplasty

In this systematic review of the literature, a search of the PubMed database was conducted to identify articles dealing with augmentation/substitution urethral reconstruction of the anterior urethral stricture. The evidence was categorized by stricture site, surgical technique, and the type of tissue used. The committee appointed by the International Consultation on Urological Disease reviewed this data and produced a consensus statement relating to the augmentation and substitution of the anterior urethra. In this review article, the background pathophysiology is discussed. Most cases of urethral stricture disease in the anterior urethra are consequent on an ischemic spongiofibrosis. The choice of technique and the surgical approach are discussed along with the potential pros and cons of the use of a graft vs a flap. There is research potential for tissue engineering. The efficacy of the surgical approach to the urethra is reviewed. Whenever possible, a 1-stage approach is preferable from the patient's perspective. In some cases, with complex penile urethral strictures, a 2-stage procedure might be appropriate, and there is an important potential role for the use of a perineal urethrostomy in cases where there is an extensive anterior urethral stricture or where the patient does not wish to undergo complex surgery, or medical contraindications make this hazardous. It is important to have accurate outcome measures for the follow-up of patients, and in this context, a full account needs to be taken of patients' perspectives by the use of appropriate patient-reported outcome measures. The use of symptoms and a flow rate can be misleading. It is well established that with a normally functioning bladder, the flow rate does not diminish until the caliber of the urethra falls below 10F. The most accurate means of following up patients after stricture surgery are by the use of endoscopy or visualization by urethrography. Careful consideration needs to be made of the outcomes reported in the world literature, bearing in mind these aforementioned points. The article concludes with an overview of the key recommendations provided by the committee.

A systematic review of graft augmentation urethroplasty techniques for the treatment of anterior urethral strictures

CONTEXT

Reconstructive surgeons who perform urethroplasty have a variety of techniques in their armamentarium that may be used according to factors such as aetiology, stricture position, and length. No one technique is recommended.

OBJECTIVE

Our aim was to assess the reported outcomes of the various techniques for graft augmentation urethroplasty according to site of surgery.

EVIDENCE ACQUISITION

We performed an updated systematic review of the Medline literature from 1985 to date and classified the data according to the site of surgery and technique used. Data are also presented on the type of graft used and the follow-up methodology used by each centre.

EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS

More than 2000 anterior urethroplasty procedures have been described in the literature. When considering the bulbar urethra there is no significant difference between the average success rates of the dorsal and the ventral onlay procedures, 88.4% and 88.8% at 42.2 and 34.4 mo in 934 and 563 patients, respectively. The lateral onlay technique has only been described in six patients and has a reported success rate of 83% at 77 mo. The Asopa and Palminteri techniques have been described in 89 and 53 patients with a success rate of 86.7% and 90.1% at 28.9 and 21.9 mo, respectively. When considering penile strictures, the success rate of the two-stage penile technique is significantly better than the one-stage penile technique, 90.5% versus 75.7% as calculated for 129 and 432 patients, respectively, although the follow-up of one-stage procedures was longer at 32.8 mo compared with 22.2 mo.

CONCLUSIONS

There is no evidence in the literature of a difference between one-stage techniques for urethroplasty of the bulbar urethra. The two-stage technique has better reported outcomes than a one-stage approach for penile urethroplasty but has a shorter follow-up.