WCE 2018: Associated Factors in Urethral Stricture Recurrence After Endoscopic Urethrotomy. Comparison of Holmium Laser vs Cold Knife

Paris, France (UroToday.com) For many urologists, urethral strictures present a prominent and challenging problem in the clinical setting. Fortunately, urologists have several treatment options available to correct strictures. Dilations, stenting, visual internal urethrotomy, and urethroplasty constitute the feasible interventions for urethral strictures, although Dr. Ruiz indicated that urethroplasty is largely reserved for long or complicated strictures. When it comes to visual internal urethrotomy (VIU), surgeons have two options: Holmium laser (HL) and cold-knife (CK) VIU. Dr. Ruiz and colleagues set out to compare these two techniques and to identify any variables associated with recurrence by means of a retrospective study.

The authors received their data from their internally maintained hospital database between February 2012 and February 2016. Patients that were diagnosed with a primary bulbar stricture that underwent either HL or CK VIU were included in this study.

One-hundred-eighty-one patients underwent a VIU, 107 with HL and 74 with CK. The authors comparison did not find any significant difference between CK VIU and HL VIU recurrence rates (Figure 1).

WCE 22 Image 8

Of note, a higher success rate was observed in the HL VIU groups. Furthermore, patients who underwent CK VIU presented with earlier recurrence compared to HL VIU (4-9 months vs 5-16 months, respectively). The authors suggested that the study needs more power before statistically significant differences between CK and HL VIU can be shown.

Presented by: Jose Alfredo Ruiz, PA-C UC San Diego Health

Written by Mitchell O’Leary, Department of Urology, University of California-Irvine, medical writer for UroToday at the 36th World Congress of Endourology (WCE) and SWL - September 20-23, 2018 Paris, France

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