Small intestine submucosa in urethral stricture repair in a consecutive series

To define the feasibility of acellular porcine small intestine submucosa (SIS) as a xenograft implant. SIS is commercially available and approved for use in humans.

Five patients underwent open surgery for urethral stricture repair using SIS and a four-layer SIS graft. Two patients had a bulbar stricture and three had a combined penile-bulbar stricture. The median stricture length was 9 cm (range 3.5 to 10). All patients underwent at least one internal urethrotomy. The urethral stricture repair was performed as an onlay urethroplasty. SIS was used to augment the urethral caliber at the stricture site. A catheter and percutaneous cystostomy for drainage were placed. The catheter was removed 10 days after surgery. Three weeks postoperatively, voiding cystourethrography and retrograde urethrography were performed.

Preoperatively, flow studies were available for 3 patients, in 1 patient voiding was not possible because of urinary retention, and in 1 patient the preoperative flow study was not available (surgery was performed on the basis of the preoperative urethrographic findings). The mean maximal flow rate was 4.2 mL/s (n = 3); the mean value of the mean flow rate was 2.6 mL/s (n = 3). Postoperatively, 1 patient had extravasation, which was treated by prolonged suprapubic drainage. One patient had severe urethritis and one urinary tract infection. Four patients had a recurrent stricture after a mean of 12.4 months (range 3.7 to 17.5). Two patients underwent open repair using buccal mucosa and two refused repeated surgery.

In 4 patients, the operation was not successful. Because of the poor results, we discontinued the use of SIS for open urethral stricture repair.