Tissue engineered indigenous pericardial patch urethroplasty: A promising solution to a nagging problem

Urethral stricture is a highly prevalent disease and has a continued rising incidence. The global burden of disease keeps rising as there are significant rates of recurrence with the existing management options with the need for additional repeat procedures. Moreover, the existing treatment options are associated with significant morbidity in the patient. Long segment urethral strictures are most commonly managed by augmentation urethroplasty. We explored the potential for the application of an acellular tissue engineered bovine pericardial patch in augmentation urethroplasty in a series of our patients suffering from urethral stricture disease. The decreased morbidity due to the avoidance of harvest of buccal mucosa, decreased operative time and satisfactory postoperative results make it a promising option for augmentation urethroplasty.

Nine patients with long segment anterior urethral strictures (involving penile and/or bulbar urethra and stricture length >4 cm) were included in the study after proper informed consent was obtained. Acellular tissue engineered indigenous bovine pericardial patch was used for urethroplasty using dorsal onlay technique.

A total of nine patients underwent tissue engineered indigenous pericardial patch urethroplasty for long segment urethral strictures, mostly catheter injury induced or associated with balanitis xerotica obliterans. Median follow-up was 8 months (range: 2-12 months). Out of nine patients, eight (88.9%) were classified as success and one (11.1%) was classified as failure.

Our study brings a product of tissue engineering, already being used in the cardiovascular surgery domain, into the urological surgery operating room with satisfactory results achieved using standard operating techniques of one stage urethroplasty.