Purpose: Controversy exists regarding the optimal urethroplasty technique, particularly for long bulbar urethral strictures requiring buccal mucosal graft. We assessed the relative outcomes of augmented anastomotic urethroplasty vs dorsal onlay in the setting of bulbar urethroplasty using a dorsal buccal mucosal graft.
Materials and methods: A retrospective review was performed on all patients who underwent bulbar urethroplasty with dorsal buccal mucosal graft between October 2003 and March 2019. Around 2011 institutional technique shifted from routinely performing transecting augmented anastomotic urethroplasty to nontransecting dorsal onlay. Anastomotic urethroplasty without buccal mucosal graft, ventral onlay, staged, flap and circumferential reconstructions were excluded. The primary outcome was stricture recurrence defined as less than 16Fr on cystoscopy. Secondary outcomes included 90-day complications and de novo erectile dysfunction at 6 months.
Results: Of the 836 patients who underwent bulbar urethroplasty during the study period 507 met inclusion criteria. Of these, 221 patients received an augmented anastomotic urethroplasty while 286 underwent dorsal onlay urethroplasty. Mean patient age and stricture length were 45.4±14.8 years and 4.4±1.5 cm, respectively. Overall success rate was 93.9% (476 of 507) with a mean followup of 78.9 months. On multivariate analysis augmented anastomotic urethroplasty (HR 4.8, p=0.002), increasing stricture length (HR 1.2, p=0.002) and iatrogenic strictures (HR 3.2, p=0.03) were independently associated with stricture recurrence, while comorbidity (p=0.06), prior endoscopic treatment (p=0.41), prior urethroplasty (p=0.89) and other etiologies were not. There was no difference between cohorts with respect to Clavien 2 or greater complications (3.6% vs 4.2%, p=0.74) or de novo erectile dysfunction (5.9% vs 5.6%, p=0.89).
Conclusions: Augmented anastomotic urethroplasty is independently associated with stricture recurrence when compared to a pure dorsal onlay technique.
Keywords: recurrence; risk factors; urethral stricture.