Management of Post Traumatic Posterior Urethral Stricture; Internal Urethrotomy verses Perennial Urethroplasty

Abstract

Objective: To compare the efficacy and cost effectiveness of cold knife optical internal urethrotomy with perineal urethroplasty (excision and end to end anastomosis) in the management of post traumatic short posterior urethral stricture. Design: an observational prospective study. Place and duration of study: the study was performed in the department of urology and kidney transplantation Services hospital/post graduate medical institute Lahore, from September 1997 to December 1999. Patients and methods: Forty male patients of post traumatic posterior urethral stricture revealed by their urethrogram were included in the study. Patients were divided in two groups randomly (group A & group B). After complete evaluation, patients of group A were managed by internal uretherotomy, while those of group B by perineal urethroplasty. Follow up was done at 1,3,6,9 & 12 months. Results: age range of the patients was 20 to 59 years with the mean age of 35.5 years. Road traffic accident was the main cause (82.5%). After facing the traumatic urethral injury, there was history of attempted Foley catheterization (47.5%), bouginage (15%) and intervention by rail road technique in 10% of the patients. All patients were with supra pubic catheter because of failure to void. The length of stricture varied from 0.5 to 2.0 cm (mean 1.4 cm). Clinical response at the end of the study in group A & B was "good" in 58.82% & 66.66%, "satisfactory" in 23.52% & 22.22% and "poor" in 17.64% &11.11% respectively. The mean cost of operation, hospital stay and loss of working hours were less in group A as compared to that of group B. Conclusion: The results of perineal urethroplasty are comparatively better than optical urethrotomy. The other differences of the two procedures lie in operative time cost of the operation and mean hospital stay. It is concluded that optical urethrotomy is an acceptable alternative to urethroplasty in patients with short post traumatic posterior urethral stricture.