Using of urethral titanium nickelide stents in children with urethral strictures after primary urethroplasty
Gipospadia is one of the most common genital malformation in male children, that cause amount of urethroplasty. Urethral stricture is one of the most frequent complications after urethroplasty. The objective of the study was to compare two methods of management of neourethral strictures: internal optical urethrotomy (IOU) and IOU + urethral stenting. Patients and methods. 28 patients with urethral strictures were included in the prospective randomized study. All patients had a special urological investigation, consisted of uroflowmetry, urethrography and urethroscopy. Most of strictures were located in penile urethra. The length of stricture was from 1 mm to 5 mm in different patients. All patients had only single stricture. After randomizing, for one half of patients internal visual urethrotomy was performed and for another half of patients internal visual urethrotomy was performed with one-time stenting using individual prepared titanium nickelide stent. Stent was in urethra for 14-21 days. After it had been evacuated from urethra and uroflowmetry and urethrography were performed. Results. All patients in research group have good results of uroflowmetry after treatment. The results of urethrography and urethroscopy have also showed that there were no urethral strictures. The longest follow-up has lasted for 3 years. The efficiency of treatment is 93%. In one case repeated procedure was required. Conclusion. All things considered, it is reasonable to assume that stenting of urethra after internal visual urethrotomy has good outcomes, and seems like a very perspective minimally invasive way of treatment of urethral stricture.