Publication:

Role of dorsal onlay buccal mucosal graft urethroplasty for long anterior urethral strictures

Background Treatment of the urethral strictures is challenging and with appropriate evaluation preoperatively and surgery planning it is possible to achieve good results. The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of dorsal onlay buccal mucosal graft urethroplasty in treating long anterior urethral strictures.

Methods Between August 2018 to July 2019 a total of 25 patients with anterior urethral stricture were treated with dorsal onlay buccal mucosal graft urethroplasty. Age, etiology of the stricture, stricture length (≤ 7 cm, and > 7 cm), and site of the stricture were assessed as the factors affecting the success rate.

Results The clinical outcome as Success was defined as the patient not needing any form of urethral instrumentation postoperatively. The mean follow-up period was 18 months. Of 25 patients, 22 (92%) were successful and 3 (8%) were a failure. There was no statistically significant difference between the age groups, etiology of the stricture and success rate (p=0.21 and p=0.444). The statistical difference was significant for the site and length of the stricture by means of success (p=0.005 and p=0.025).

Conclusions Our results show stricture length and localization are the most important variables for good success. Because of less failure rate, single-stage dorsal onlay buccal mucosal graft urethroplasty may be offered as an alternative to staged urethroplasty in case of long urethral strictures.