[Traumatic rupture of the anterior urethra. Apropos of 18 cases]

The authors report a retrospective series of 18 cases of rupture of the anterior urethra, with a mean age of 25 years (range: 10 to 45 years). The mechanism of the lesion was trauma by falling onto the perineum (12 cases), road accident (4 cases) and sexual intercourse (2 cases). Urine drainage was ensured by suprapubic catheter (15 cases) or urethral catheter (1 case). The two cases of rupture of the urethra associated with lesions of the corpora cavernosa required urgent surgical repair. In the other cases, simple urine drainage was sufficient to treat partial ruptures of the urethra (11 cases) with only one case of urethral structure. However, end-to-end urethrorraphy was performed in the 4 patients with total rupture of the urethra, with early failure in 3 cases, attributed to delayed surgery. Finally, the course of urethral rupture associated with rupture of the corpora, cavernosa was favourable in terms of both micturition and sexual function.