[Female urethral stricture: etiology, diagnostic and treatment]

Female urethral stricture is an infrequent cause of bladder outlet obstruction, which is also a rare clinical entity in women. The most frequent etiology is the previous urogenital surgery. Periurethral fibrosis is the final cause regardless the etiology. Considerably controversie surrounds in the diagnostic criteria but the estrictures are structural obstructions which involve media and distal third of the female urethra. There is no treatment consensus, but less agresive maneuvers such as dilatations and urethrotomies are chosen to treat primary estrictures, although the high recurrence rates. Reconstructive tecniques with the use of several flaps and grafts should be considered in recurrent cases and when there is a partial or total urethral defect.