Recently, I wrote about my stricture of the urethra (My Stricture Of The Urethra), where I explained not only my drama with it so far, but also what a stricture is. My urologist told me that next to prostate cancer, a urethral stricture is is the most difficult to treat, both in terms of duration and pain for the patient.
There are many different treatments for a urethral stricture, but the only category of surgery that results in over 80% long-term success is called urethoplasty. And there are a few different kinds of urethrolplasty, varying in complexity and how invasive the surgery is. But it basically means open surgery to the penis (for men), as opposed to a fix that can be done with a scope all inside the urethra. Those procedures go by the name of urethrotomy, and have a low rate success – about 25% short-term and o% long-term! Other procedures are also not very successful, such as putting in a stent or just widening the urethra, basically stretching it (ouch).
The man in the video had over 20 different surgeries over the course of decades! Finally, at the age of 75, he received a surgery that actually has lasted (a urethroplasty, of course).
Watch him tell his story here: https://www.centerforreconstructiveurology.org/video-library/straddle-urethral-trauma/
My husband needs to have a urethoplasy. We are not confident in the urologist we were referred to. How did you go about finding your doctor. We want the best one out there. His stricture is from one end to the other and will be doing graphs. Lots of moving parts with his diagnosis and we want to make sure he gets the best care that’s out there!
Hi Renee. I totally understand that. It seems that even among urologists, those that specialize in urethroplasty are relatively rare. Where are you located?