Tunica vaginalis free graft urethroplasty: 10 years experience

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the long term patient outcomes over a 10 year period among 52 patients who had tunica vaginalis (TV) for substitution urethroplasty.
Patients and methods: Between October 2005 and December 2015, a total of 52 patients had TV substitution urethroplasty. 25 cases had one stage free graft dorsal urethroplasty while 27 cases had augmented anastomoses urethroplasty. Successful criteria were: patient satisfaction, urine flow rate above 16 mL/s, patent urethrogram and no need for dilation or any instrumentation during the follow-up period.
Results: Overall success rate was 80.8%. Five cases completely failed due to severe wound sepsis and TV urethroplasty redone successfully 6–12 months later. Recurrent urethral stricture occurred in 5 cases over a period of 3–18 months. Superficial surgical site infection occurred in 7 cases. The 42 successful cases were voiding well, with an average flow rate 20 mL/s. None of the patients had any scrotal pain or discomfort in the follow-up period.
Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge this is the first long term study using this technique with encouraging results and the researchers propose that it is considered as an additional option by reconstructive genitourinary surgeons.