The earliest description of urethral stricture and its treatment occurred in the sixth century BC in India. A wide variety of factors can lead to stricture disease e.g. iatrogenic, urinary tract infection (UTI), sexually transmitted infections, catheters, trauma to the perineum and the list goes on. More recently, I have seen an increase in the number of bulbar / membranous strictures after radiotherapy or brachytherapy for prostate cancer. Despite advances in research and treatment, stricture disease continues to haunt urologists and patients alike. The usual dictum is ‘once a stricture, always a stricture’. Such cases keep coming back every few months or years. This study presents the use of bulbar urethral stent (BUS) for recurrent bulbar urethral stricture (US) between 2009-2019. One hundred and sixty-eight BUS were placed after optical urethrotomy with a planned indwelling time of 12 months. End criteria were 1) No stricture on urethrogram and / or endoscopy; 2) Flow rate greater than 15ml/sec; 3) Absence of recurrent UTI. The mean values were age 46 years, stricture length 2.32 and indwelling stent time 9.7 months. The success rate was 77.9%. According to the authors, this paper is the largest patient series and longest follow-up of BUS in stricture disease.
Bulbar urethral stents for bulbar urethral strictures: long-term follow-up after stent removal.
Ustuner M, Teke K, Bosnali E, et al.
UROLOGIA INTERNATIONALIS
2022;106(3):243-8.
