Buccal mucosa graft urethroplasty for bulbar urethral stricture: Outcomes andpredictive factors affecting success

The bulbar urethra is the location where urethral stricture is most commonly observed. The most successful method for long and recurrent urethral stenosis is graft urethroplasty. The most successful graft source is buccal mucosa, with advantages like easy adaptation to the corporeal bed, thick epithelium, thin lamina propria with rich vascular structure and easy ability to obtain the graft. In this study we aimed to retrospectively assess the outcomes and predictive factors affecting surgical success of our buccal mucosal graft urethroplasty surgery performed for bulbar urethra stenosis with moderate length.

In this study, we monitored 51 patients with mean 4.4 cm bulbar urethral stricture length for mean 17 months follow-up. From operative and postoperative data, stenosis length, operation duration, Qmax, International Prostate Symptom Score, International Index of Erectile Function-Erectile Function and OF, success rates in total and in subgroups (age, according to DVIU, etiology, BMI and DM), follow-up duration, complications, re-stricture time and number were assessed.

The total success of the operations was 86.3%. In 17 months, the re-stricture rate was 13.7%. Oral and urethral complications were all minor. The complications with longest duration (6 months) were ejaculation, erection problems and urethral fistula. Mean time to re-stricture was 11 months. All re-stricture patients were relieved by one DVIU session each.

For bulbar urethral stricture longer than 2 cm and with recurrence, the dorsal buccal mucosa graft replacement is a very successful method with low complication rates.