ABSTRACT
Introduction: Upto 300 per 100000 men are affected byurethral stricture disease. Urethral stricture is by definitiona narrowing of urethra caused by scarring. Stricture diseasecould be induced due to a variety of causes and can bedetrimental for the health and quality of life of the patient. Awide variety of interventions are performed by the practisingurologist for stricture urethra including dilatation, visualinternal uretherotomy (VIU) and urethroplasty. The aim ofthis study was to review the outcomes of various treatmentmodalities for stricture urethra at our centre.Material and methods: The study was conducted in aprospective observational manner in a tertiary care centreover a period of 18 months. All cases of male urethral strictureundergoing intervention were included in this study. Treatmentoptions included Visual internal uretherotomy (VIU),anastomotic urethroplasty and augmented urethroplasty.Patient factors, stricture factors and surgical outcomes,recurrence rates were analysed.Results: Eighty seven cases of male stricture urethra wereincluded in the study. Idiopathic strictures(40%) werethe commonest aetiology followed by traumatic(36.7%),iatrogenic(14.9%) and inflammatory strictures(8%).Commonest site was the bulbar urethra(35.6%) followedby penile urethra. Augmented urethroplasty was donein 33 patients, while 25 patients underwent anastomoticurethroplasty. VIU was done in 29 patients. Success rateof interventions in our study was 89.7% at 12 months offollow-up (VIU-80%, augmented urethroplasty-96.6% andanastomotic urethroplasty-92.2%).Conclusion: A reconstructive urologist must be familiar witha variety of techniques to tackle strictures of the urethra.VIU was used predominantly for single short segmentbulbar strictures but showed high recurrence rates(20%).Urethroplasty had better outcomes in terms of recurrencerate(5%), proving why it is considered the gold standard fortreating urethral strictures.