Dorsal Onlay Oral Mucosa Graft Urethroplasty for Female Urethral Stricture

To describe and assess the outcomes of dorsal onlay oral mucosa graft urethroplasty for female urethral stricture.

We retrospectively reviewed the charts of all female patients who underwent dorsal onlay oral (buccal or lingual) mucosa urethroplasty for urethral stricture between 2011 and 2020 at two academic institutions. The primary endpoint was clinical success defined as any subjective improvement in LUTS self-assessed by the patients 1-3 months after catheter removal. Four surgeons performed the urethroplasties using a standardized technique: suprameatal incision, dissection and longitudinal opening of the dorsal aspect of the urethra, harvest of the oral mucosa graft, graft onlay sutured into the urethral opening.

Nineteen patients were included. The clinical success rate was 94.7% at 1-3 months and 90.9% at 1 year. After a median follow-up of 12 months (range 1-49) there was one recurrence (5.3%), clinical success was achieved in 17 patients (89.5%) and both the maximum urinary flow rate and post void residual were significantly improved (15.2 vs 7.4 ml/s preoperatively; P = .008 and 71.5 vs 161.1 ml preoperatively; P = .001 respectively). The de novo stress urinary incontinence rate was 15.7% at 1-3 months and 9.1% at 1 year.

Dorsal onlay oral mucosa graft urethroplasty for female urethral stricture appears feasible across multiple surgeons and is associated with a low perioperative morbidity, satisfactory functional outcomes and a low recurrence rate. Other series with larger sample size and longer follow-up are needed to confirm these findings.