The dorsal inlay graft for hypospadias repair

Hypospadias is a common genitourinary anomaly affecting every 1/300 male newborns. The goals of hypospadiac surgery include a straight penis with a urethral meatus at the tip of the glans, a well vascularized neourethra of adequate caliber with a solid, straight urinary stream and achievement of sexual function when mature. Current theory advocates preservation of the urethral plate with chordee correction. Hypospadias repair without an adequate urethral plate to roll into a tube requires longitudinal incision of the plate or a transverse preputial island flap. We describe a technique of 1-stage urethroplasty using an inner preputial based dorsal inlay graft.

After the penis is degloved and chordee corrected incisions are made bilaterally along the urethral plate from the native urethral meatus to the glans tip. The urethral plate is incised longitudinally. A graft harvested from the inner prepuce is defatted and sutured onto the incised urethral plate. The neourethra is rolled into a tube in Thiersch-Duplay fashion.

This technique was used in 32 patients. The original urethral meatus was coronal to penoscrotal and chordee release was performed concomitantly. At 21 months of followup no patient had a stricture, fistula or diverticulum at the inlay graft site.

This technique successfully fulfills all traditional hypospadias repair criteria. We believe that the dorsal inlay graft after incision of the urethral plate is a rapid, easy and successful addition to the armamentarium of the "hypospadiologist."