[Open urethral surgery in women]

There are only a few disorders of the female urethra which have to be treated by open urethral surgery, urethral diverticula and urethral strictures. These diseases are rare and subsequently open surgery of the female urethra is also rare. However, these surgical techniques are an important part of the surgical armamentarium in urology, because this is the only method to preserve quality of life of patients concerned. Surgical therapy of urethral diverticula includes well-defined procedures, such as marsupialization and diverticula excision. In contrast, there is no established surgical therapy for female urethral strictures. Several suggestions to solve this problem have been made in recent years and will be presented in this article.