Buccal mucosal graft urethroplasty in the treatment of urethral strictures: experience using the two-surgeon technique

At our institution, the majority of buccal mucosal graft urethroplasties are performed using a two-team approach with an otolaryngologic surgeon. We report our two-surgeon experience with buccal mucosal grafting for reconstruction of all anterior urethral strictures. Twenty-four men underwent autologous buccal mucosal graft urethroplasty between October 2001 and September 2008 for recurrent urethral stricture disease. Twenty-two underwent a single-stage repair and two underwent a two-stage repair. Medical charts were retrospectively reviewed for demographics, comorbidities, etiology, location and length of stricture, and prior interventions in order to identify predictors of buccal urethroplasty success, defined as no evidence of stricture recurrence. All patients underwent retrograde urethrogram and cystoscopy. Operative and anesthesia times were evaluated. We determined an overall success rate of 83.3% (20 of 24 cases). Mean anesthesia time for single-stage urethroplasty was 155 min and mean operative time was 123 min. One of the two two-stage urethroplasties experienced stricture recurrence (50%). The single-stage buccal graft success rate was 86.4% (19 of 22 cases). Two of the four who developed recurrent stricture disease that required intervention had undergone a previous mesh urethroplasty. Complications developed in four of 24 patients (16.6%), including superficial wound infection (one), superficial wound dehiscence (two), and abscess/fistula formation requiring reoperation (one). The buccal mucosa is an ideal tissue for both single- and two-stage substitution urethroplasty for patients with recurrent stricture disease. Our two-surgeon technique minimizes anesthesia and operative times, and contributes to the overall high success rate and relatively low complication rate.