Experience with cold knife optical internal urethrotomy

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the outcome and efficacy of cold knife optical internal urethrotomy. Design: A retrospective analysis of 120 cases. Place and Duration of Study The study was carried out over a period of three years [May 1996 - June 1999] in the Department of Surgery, Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar; and Medicare Hospital [Private], Peshawar. Subjects and One hundred and twenty male patients with urethral strictures were treated with cold knife optical urethrotomy over a period of three years. An analysis was carried out of the short-term results of optical internal urethrotomy to determine the outcome and efficacy of the procedure. The age range was 14-80 years, the mean age being 35 years. The follow-up period on treated patients ranged from three months to thirty-three months. The results awed that early morbidity was 16.6% with no mortality. The recurrence rate was 7% [8 out of 120]. The results are consistent with other studies and confirm this as the preferred initial procedure in urethral strictures of bulbar, membranous and proximal penile urethra. Optical internal urethrotomy is the preferred initial management of urethral stricture. Urethroplasty should be considered in failed optical urethrotomy and recurrent stricture disease