Use of penile skin flap in complex anterior urethral stricture repair: our experience

Objective: To present our experience of treatment of complex anterior urethral strictures using penile skin flap. Study Design: Descriptive, case series. Place and Duration of Study: Department of urology Combined Military Hospital Malir Cantonment, Karachi and Armed Forces Institute of Urology, Rawalpindi from Jan 2012 to Feb 2014. Material and Methods: Total 18 patients with complex anterior urethral strictures and combined anterior and bulborurethral strictures were included. Patients underwent repair using Orandi or circularfacio-cutaneous penile skin flap depending upon the size and site of stricture. First dressing was changed after two days and an in dwelling silicone two way foleycatheter was kept in place for three weeks. Graft was assessed with regards to local infection, fistula formation and restricturing. Re-stricture was assessed by performing uroflowmetery at 6 months and 1 year. Ascending urethrogram was reserved for cases with less than 10 ml/sec Q max on uroflowmetery. Repair failure was considered when there was a need for any subsequent urethral procedure asurethral dilatation, dorsal visual internal urethrotomy, or urethroplasty. Results: Overall success rate was 83.3 percent. Of all the patients operated 1(5.6 percent) had infection with loss of flap, 3(16.7 percent) had urethral fistula and none had re stricture confirmed by uroflowmetery. Conclusion: In our study the excellent results of the penile skin flap both in anterior urethral strictures and combined anterior and bulbar urethral strictures are quite encouraging. It is easy to harvest and seems anatomically more logical. (author)