[Management of urethral strictures: practical guidelines]

For the diagnosis of urethral strictures it is of utmost importance to determine the exact position and length of the strictured area. The optimal method for this purpose is retrograde urethrography which can be combined with a voiding cystourethrography. Endoscopic treatment of urethral strictures is only reasonable for cases with short segment bulbar strictures (<1.5 cm) otherwise recurrence rates are very high. For long segment or recurrent strictures only open urethroplasty provides good results in terms of recurrence-free survival. In these open techniques care must be taken in early postoperative management to obtain the best results.