Advances in Urology Urethral Stricture Disease: Challenges and Ongoing Controversies Guest Editors: Miroslav L. Djordjevic, Francisco E. Martins, Vladimir Kojovic, and Dmitry Kurbatov Urethral Stricture Disease: Challenges and Ongoing Controversies Advances in Urology Urethral Stricture Disease: Challenges and Ongoing Controversies Guest Editors: Miroslav L. Djordjevic, Francisco E. Martins, Vladimir Kojovic, and Dmitry Kurbatov Copyright©2016HindawiPublishingCorporation.Allrightsreserved. Thisisaspecialissuepublishedin“AdvancesinUrology.”AllarticlesareopenaccessarticlesdistributedundertheCreativeCommons AttributionLicense,whichpermitsunrestricteduse,distribution,andreproductioninanymedium,providedtheoriginalworkisprop- erlycited. Editorial Board MohammadH.Ather,Pakistan ChristopherM.Gonzalez,USA SangtaePark,USA DariusJ.Bagli,Canada NarmadaPrasadGupta,India AlejandroR.Rodriguez,USA StevenB.Brandes,USA KostisGyftopoulos,Greece JoséRubio-Briones,Spain JamesA.Brown,USA JasonM.Hafron,USA MatthewRutman,USA FabioCampodonico,Italy DanielW.Lin,USA DouglasS.Scherr,USA InHoChang,RepublicofKorea WilliamLynch,Australia NormD.Smith,USA FelixChun,Germany MartinMarszalek,Austria NazarenoSuardi,Italy PaddyDewan,Australia VirajMaster,USA FlavioTrigoRocha,Brazil MiroslavL.Djordjevic,Serbia MaxwellV.Meng,USA VassiliosTzortzis,Greece CarlosEstrada,USA HiepT.Nguyen,USA WillieUnderwood,USA WalidA.Farhat,Canada YuanjieNiu,China OuidaL.Westney,USA Contents UrethralStrictureDisease:ChallengesandOngoingControversies MiroslavL.Djordjevic,FranciscoE.Martins,VladimirKojovic,andDmitryKurbatov Volume2016,ArticleID1238369,2pages Sexual(Dys)functionafterUrethroplasty LuísXambre Volume2016,ArticleID9671297,10pages AnteriorUrethralStrictureDiseaseNegativelyImpactstheQualityofLifeofFamilyMembers JonathanR.Weese,ValaryT.Raup,JairamR.Eswara,StephenD.Marshall,AndrewJ.Chang,JoelVetter, andStevenB.Brandes Volume2016,ArticleID3582862,4pages ManagementofLong-SegmentandPanurethralStrictureDisease FranciscoE.Martins,SanjayB.Kulkarni,PankajJoshi,JonathanWarner,andNataliaMartins Volume2015,ArticleID853914,15pages PosteriorUrethralStrictures JoelGelmanandEricS.Wisenbaugh Volume2015,ArticleID628107,11pages TheUseofFlapsandGraftsintheTreatmentofUrethralStrictureDisease EricS.WisenbaughandJoelGelman Volume2015,ArticleID979868,8pages SurgicalRepairofBulbarUrethralStrictures:AdvantagesofVentral,Dorsal,andLateralApproaches andWhentoChooseThem KrishnanVenkatesan,StephenBlakely,andDmitriyNikolavsky Volume2015,ArticleID397936,4pages BipolarTransurethralIncisionofBladderNeckStenoseswithMitomycinCInjection TimothyD.Lyon,OmarM.Ayyash,MatthewC.Ferroni,KevinJ.Rycyna,andMangL.Chen Volume2015,ArticleID758536,5pages TreatmentofUrethralStricturesfromIrradiationandOtherNonsurgicalFormsofPelvicCancer Treatment IyadKhourdaji,JacobParke,AvinashChennamsetty,andFrankBurks Volume2015,ArticleID476390,7pages ImpactofShort-StayUrethroplastyonHealth-RelatedQualityofLifeandPatient’sPerceptionof TimingofDischarge HenryOkaforandDmitriyNikolavsky Volume2015,ArticleID806357,5pages VisualInternalUrethrotomyforAdultMaleUrethralStrictureHasPoorLong-TermResults WaleedAlTaweelandRaoufSeyam Volume2015,ArticleID656459,4pages AnastomoticRepairversusFreeGraftUrethroplastyforBulbarStrictures:AFocusontheImpacton SexualFunction MatthiasBeysens,EnzoPalminteri,WillemOosterlinck,Anne-FrançoiseSpinoit,PietHoebeke, PhilippeFrançois,KarelDecaestecker,andNicolaasLumen Volume2015,ArticleID912438,7pages Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in Urology Volume 2016, Article ID 1238369, 2 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/1238369 Editorial Urethral Stricture Disease: Challenges and Ongoing Controversies MiroslavL.Djordjevic,1FranciscoE.Martins,2VladimirKojovic,1andDmitryKurbatov3 1SchoolofMedicine,UniversityofBelgrade,11000Belgrade,Serbia 2UniversityofLisbon,1649-004Lisbon,Portugal 3EndocrinologyResearchCenter,AndrologyandUrologyDepartment,Moscow117036,Russia CorrespondenceshouldbeaddressedtoMiroslavL.Djordjevic;[email protected] Received25February2016;Accepted25February2016 Copyright©2016MiroslavL.Djordjevicetal.ThisisanopenaccessarticledistributedundertheCreativeCommonsAttribution License,whichpermitsunrestricteduse,distribution,andreproductioninanymedium,providedtheoriginalworkisproperly cited. Management of urethral stricture disease presents constant E. Martins and colleagues evaluated etiology, pathogenesis, challengeforallreconstructiveurologists.Urethralstricture and diagnostic work-up and, finally, presented different diseaseisgenerallydefinedasstenosesthataretypicallylong, surgical options for treatment, together with outcomes and involving broad areas of varying spongiofibrosis, and result complications. They concluded that one-stage repair with from inflammation and/or infection, rather than trauma. buccal mucosa grafts presents an excellent option in the Although the management of urethral strictures may be treatmentoflongurethralstricture.However,forobliterative complexandchallenging,veryoftentheyaretreatedbyhealth disease,two-stageurethroplastyoffersaviablealternative. carepersonnelwithoutthenecessaryandpropertrainingand J.GelmanandE.S.Wisenbaughpresentedareviewarticle knowledgeofthecurrent,modern,validatedtechniquesand about management of patients who suffer pelvic fracture procedures.Notablechangesinsurgicalapproachhavebeen urethral injuries which usually develop into obliterative adopted worldwide, resulting in significant improvement strictureswithdistractiondefect.Theycomprehensivelyeval- of successful outcomes and simultaneously decreasing the uatedinitialmanagement,preoperativeplanning,andtech- complication rate. Nowadays, most urethral strictures can niques for posterior urethral stricture disease. The authors be reconstructed in a one-stage procedure, leaving some emphasize the importance of adequate vascularization of complex cases for a less convenient, but safer, two-stage urethraforsuccessfulrepair.Theybelievethatpossiblefuture repairstrategy.Theexcitingandenjoyable“nature”ofrecon- modificationofoperativetechniquecouldbeabulbarartery structivesurgery,ingeneral,andurethralreconstruction,in sparing surgery during posterior urethral reconstruction. particular,istheunexpectedandunpredictablenatureofthe Resultsfromreferralcentersconfirmthatwhenopenrepair strictureand,consequently,theneedforthecreativecombi- fails, excision and primary anastomosis still remains the nationofdifferenttechniquesandstrategies,ofteninvolving procedure of choice and offers a very high success rate. In tissue transfer procedures, either as grafts or as flaps, for another article entitled “The Use of Flaps and Grafts in the achieving a successful outcome. This special issue contains Treatment of Urethral Stricture Disease,” the same authors a number of articles with description of different aspects, describedtheuseofversatileflapsandgraftsinthevarious presentations, and treatments of urethral stricture disease clinical presentations of anterior urethral stricture disease. withtheaimtomakefurtherimprovementofunderstanding Selectingtheappropriatetechniqueforeachpatientishighly andmanagingthisseveresurgicalcondition. individualized and dependent on stricture characteristics. Multi-institutional review article from Portugal, India, However, the proper selection of tissue transfer technique and USA presents modality of challenging treatment of is paramount to success. The authors provided a logical, long-segment and panurethral stricture disease. Francisco easilycomprehensibleapproachtotheappropriateselection 2 AdvancesinUrology of grafts and flaps in urethral reconstruction, followed by standardized questionnaires as IPSS, IIIEF-5, and Ejacula- practicalclinicalguidelines. tion/OrgasmScoreandquestionsongenitalsensitivity.The Another article, trying to give answers when to choose authorsconcludedthatanastomoticrepairisassociatedwith dorsal,ventral,orlateralonlayapproachforbuccalmucosa a transient decline in erectile and ejaculatory function, and grafturethralreconstruction,ispresentedbyK.Venkatesan that was not observed with free graft urethroplasty. Bulbar and colleagues. The authors concluded that comparative anastomotic repair and free graft urethroplasty are likely to studies are limited and choice of techniques is typically altergenitalsensitivity.However,itshouldbenotedthatthe determinedonlocationandlengthofstrictureandsurgeon authors are highly experienced and expert urologists, and preference. results from any surgery performed at center of excellence Thearticletitled“BipolarTransurethralIncisionofBlad- maynotbegeneralizable. derNeckStenoseswithMitomycinCInjection,”writtenbyT. Finally, the management of urethral stricture disease D.LyonandcolleaguesfromPittsburgh,presentedefficacyof is continually evolving. Although numerous strategies are bipolartransurethralincisionwithmitomycinCinjectionon available,thereisstillnosingleoptimumsolutionsuitablefor thirteen patients who had refractory bladder neck stenosis. all conditions. The clinical selection of stricture recurrence Overall success was achieved in 77% (10/13) of patients. prevention techniques should be carefully tailored to every Bipolar transurethral incision with mitomycin C injection individualpatient.Lastbutnotleast,reconstructiveurologist wascomparableinefficacytopreviouslyreportedtechniques mustbefamiliarwithavarietyofthesetechniques,toensure anddidnotresultinanyseriousadverseevents. theuseofthebestone,asdictatedbysituation. Urethral stricture disease is an underrecognized and MiroslavL.Djordjevic poorlyreportedcomplicationafterradiationtherapy,andthat FranciscoE.Martins can cause severe morbidity for cancer survivors. Radiated VladimirKojovic urethral tissue in particular poses a great challenge for DmitryKurbatov the reconstructive urologist. I. Khourdaji and colleagues providedacomprehensivediscussionofetiology,incidence, andavailabletreatmentoptionsforurethralstricturedisease followingpelvicradiationinthearticletitled“Treatmentof UrethralStricturesfromIrradiationandOtherNonsurgical FormsofPelvicCancerTreatment.” H. Okafor and D. Nikolavsky examined the impact of short-stayurethroplastyonhealth-relatedqualityoflifeand patient’s perception of timing of discharge. Over a 2-year period, a validated health-related quality-of-life question- naire, EuroQol (EQ-5D), and additional question assessing timing of discharge were administered to all patients after urethroplasty. Postoperatively, patients were offered to be senthomeimmediatelyortostayovernight.Inthisresearch article, the authors concluded that the majority of patients discharged soon after their procedure felt that discharge timingwasappropriateandtheirhealth-relatedqualityoflife wasonlyminimallyaffected. A clinical study, published by W. Al Taweel and R. Seyam,hasagoaltodeterminethelong-termstricture-free rate after visual internal urethrotomy following initial and follow-up urethrotomies. During a period of eight years, 301 patients underwent visual internal urethrotomy. The overall stricture-free rate at the 36-month follow-up was 8.3% with a median time to recurrence of 10 months. The authorsconfirmedthatvisualinternalurethrotomyforadult male urethral stricture has poor long-term results without significantdifferenceinthestricture-freeratebetweensingle andmultipleprocedures. Inamulticentricclinicalstudythathasbeenconducted in Italy and two centers from Belgium, M. Beysens and colleaguesevaluatedalterationsinsexualfunctionandgen- ital sensitivity after anastomotic repair and free graft ure- throplasty for bulbar urethral strictures. The patients who underwent anastomotic repair or free graft urethroplasty were prospectively evaluated before urethroplasty and 6 weeksand6monthsafterurethroplasty.Evaluationincluded Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in Urology Volume 2016, Article ID 9671297, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/9671297 Review Article Sexual (Dys)function after Urethroplasty LuísXambre CentroHospitalardeV.N.Gaia/Espinho,Servi¸codeUrologia,RuaConcei¸ca˜oFernandes,4434-502VilaNovadeGaia,Portugal CorrespondenceshouldbeaddressedtoLu´ısXambre;[email protected] Received11October2015;Accepted3February2016 AcademicEditor:VladimirKojovic Copyright©2016Lu´ısXambre.ThisisanopenaccessarticledistributedundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense,which permitsunrestricteduse,distribution,andreproductioninanymedium,providedtheoriginalworkisproperlycited. Thereisapaucityofpublishedliteratureontheandrologicalconsequencesofurethralrepair.Untilrecentlyauthorshavefocused mainlyontechnicalaspectsandobjectiveresults.Reportedoutcomesofurethralreconstructionsurgeryhavetraditionallyfocused onlyonurodynamicparameterssuchasflowrates.Patientreportedoutcomemeasureshavelargelybeenneglectedandthereisa scarcityofwellconductedsystematicstudiesonthesubject.Forthesereasonswhetherthedifferentcomponentsofsexuallifeare moreorlessaffectedbydifferenttypesofurethralreconstructionremainslargelyunknown.Inanattempttoclarifytheavailable scientificevidence,theauthorsmakeacriticalreviewofavailableliterature,systematizingitbysexualdomainandstudytype.Brief pathophysiologicalcorrelationsarediscussed. 1.Introduction a urethral reconstruction failure/success between treatment physicians and patients [12–14]. Aspects such as aesthetics Urethral stenosis, although relatively uncommon in the or those related to sexual function are obviously important universeofurologicdiseases,isbynomeansararecondition. from the perspective of patients and often overlooked in It accounts for about 52% of urethral and 1.8% of urologic the literature. If we do a simple exercise as, for example, pathology,respectively,andpresentsanestimatedprevalence an electronic search using the most widespread scientific of0.6%[1,2].Relativelyyoung,activeindividualsaremostly literaturedatabase,PubMed,thisdisparitybecomesobvious. affected.Itsassociationwithanunequivocalnegativeimpact Ifresearchesusingtermslike“urethroplastyandresults”pro- on the quality of life, whether resulting from the disease videthousandsofreferences,termssuchas“urethralstenosis” itself and its complications or whether consequence of the or“urethroplasty”and“erectiledysfunction”or“impotence” treatment(s)employed,iswellestablished. resultinonlyafewdozenscientificpapers.Moreover,many Atpresent,thereisnodoubtthatreconstructivesurgery booksthatspecificallyaddressurethralreconstructionalmost in the form of different types of urethroplasty represents exclusivelyfocusonanatomicalortechnicalaspectsandthere the “gold standard” in the treatment of these patients. is a virtual absence of information about the andrological Urethroplastyisassociatedwithreproductivelyhighsuccess aspectsofurethroplasty. rates, when properly employed. There is enough data in Althoughinrecentyearstherehasbeenagrowinginterest the literature regarding the results obtained with several inrelationtourethralstricture’sandrologicimplications,the techniques, anastomotic or substitution. When objective relationshipbetweenurethroplastyanderectiledysfunction, variables such as flow rates are considered, several authors forexample,remainscontroversialuptothepresentday.The describesuccessratesthatexceedinmanycases80%whether existenceoffewspecificstudies,heterogeneousstudypopu- foranteriorurethra,bulbar[3–5]orpenile[6–8],orwhether lations,differingmethodologies,anddiversityofprocedures forposteriorurethra[9–11]. analyzedmakesitverydifficulttoprovidedefinitiveanswers. Thesedatareflecthoweveronlyoneaspectofresults,as patientscarryoutasubstantiallydifferentperceptionofsuc- Pathophysiology of Sexual Dysfunction. Surgical approaches cessthanphysicians,notonlytakingintoaccountflowrates involvingtheexternalgenitaliahaveanunmistakablenoxious and radiological or endoscopic data. It is well known that potentialinseveraldomainsofsexualfunction,aestheticand there is a significant mismatch between what is considered dysmorphicchanges. 2 AdvancesinUrology Consequences in aesthetics and change of body image, 3.ResultsandDiscussion mostly related to the distal urethroplasties, have obvious 3.1. Body Image/Self-Esteem. Literatureisabsolutelylacking potentialimpactintermsofself-esteemandpossiblysexual intermsofevaluationoftheaestheticconsequencesofure- behavior.Althoughofsubjectivenature,theseaspectsarepar- throplasties performed in adulthood for urethral strictures. ticularly noticeable in multioperated hypospadias patients, Wecanonlyinferconclusionsbasedonfindingsfromlitera- a group of patients of increasing importance in percentage tureinthecontextofhypospadiology,astudypopulationwith termsthatposeaparticularlydifficultapproach. necessarilydifferentandveryparticularcharacteristics. Concerningerectileandejaculatorydysfunction,poten- Despite all the limitations pointed out, there are a few tiallyinjuredstructuresinthecourseofurethroplastyinclude studiesthatlookedspecificallyatthecosmeticaspectofthe severalarterialstructures,nervebranches(autonomicand/or reconstructionofthepenileurethrainthiscontextthatallow somatic),andeventuallymyogeniccomponents. usatleastsomecriticalreflections. Thereisarecognizedpotentialforinjuryofbranchesof AuthorsasBubanjetal.[25]usedapostalquestionnaire the CommonPenile Artery, essential in the hemodynamics includingquestionsaboutgenitosexualfunctioningandsex- of erection in posterior urethroplasties, and of more distal ualbehaviorinacomparativestudyof37patientssubmitted vessels,ofsmallerandquestionablepracticalimportance,in to urethroplasty for hypospadias repair 2–15 years earlier anteriorurethroplasties. (mean age 27.8 ± 6.2 years/average number of surgeries 3.81±3.37)andagroupof39normalmen(meanage25.5± Equallyimportantareneurogenicautonomiclesionsdue 5.3 years). No significant differences were found between totheproximityoftheneurovascularbundlestothemembra- the groups with regard to inhibition of search for sexual nousurethra,potentiallydamagedininstrumentationofthe contactsorsexualrelationshippatterns.Participantsinboth posterior urethra [15, 16]. Somatic neurogenic components, groupsweremostlysatisfiedwiththeirbodyimage(83,78% either sensory or motor, involving the dorsal penile or of patients with hypospadias versus 89.74% in the control perinealnerveanditsbranches,arealsoatrisk,particularly arm).However,thereweresignificantdifferencesbetweenthe duringanteriorurethroplasties[17–19]. groupsregardingthefrequencyofsexualactivityandnumber Of potential functional importance, though debatable of sexual partners. Only 51.35% of men with hypospadias andstillpracticallyinthefieldofscientificcuriosity,arethe regardedtheirsexlifeasfullysatisfyingagainst76.92%ofthe neuronal connections identified between autonomic and controlgroup. somatic pelvic, perineal, and even genital nerve terminals, Evenetal.[26]analyzedagroupof15youngadulthypo- making the latter capable of nitrergic activity. Authors like spadiaspatients(meanage21.2years)operatedinchildhood, YucelandBaskin[20]andAlsaidetal.[21]usingimmuno- employing instruments such as EuroQol 5, IIEF-15, and a histochemistry-basedstudiesinfetusesunequivocallydem- nonvalidated questionnaire. One-third of patients thought onstrate connections between the neurovascular bundles thatoverallqualityoflifewasdistorted,although80%were from the pelvic plexus, nitrergic, and components of the mostly satisfied with their sexual quality of life. The most somatic nervous system (branches of the pudendal nerve importantcomplaintswererelativetothepenileappearance. such as the dorsal nerve of the penis and perineal nerve), Althoughsubjecttowidevariationinindividualpercep- givingthemthecapacitytoreleaseerectogenicmediators. tion,theseaspectsmustofcoursebeconsideredinaddressing Finally,sectionandaggressivemobilizationordenerva- these patients and integrated with the other facets of the tion of the bulbospongiosus muscle to expose the bulbar pathology/treatmentstrategy. urethramayresultinmoreorlesssubtlechangesinejacula- tiondynamics,sincetherhythmiccontractionsofthemuscle 3.2.ErectileDysfunction duringtheexpulsionphasearefundamentalinseminalfluid expulsion[22–24]. 3.2.1. Anterior Urethra: Prospective Studies. There are few prospective studies with correct methodology, making use 2.MaterialsandMethods of fully validated questionnaires such as the IIEF (Inter- national Index of Erectile Function) or the BMSFI (Brief AsystematicreviewofseveraldatabasesincludingPubMed, Male Sexual Function Inventory) specifically dealing with Cochrane Library, Embase, and Google Scholar was con- anterior urethroplasties. Table 1 [27–31] lists these studies ducted. Systematic searches of these databases used terms and the results obtained. It is evident that all these studies as“urethroplasty,”“urethralreconstruction,”“urethralanas- show statistical limitations. The small sample size by itself tomosis,” “urethral stricture,” “urethral stenosis,” and “ure- can obscure statistically significant differences simply as a thralobstruction,”andtermssuchas“erectiledysfunction,” consequence of underpowered studies. In fact, none of the “impotence,” “sexual dysfunction,” “ejaculatory dysfunc- studies makes explicit reference to calculations in order to tion,”and“orgasmicdysfunction.”Thesearchstrategyused define a minimum sample size that would be required to bothkeywordsandMeSHtermsandwaslimitedtohuman show5to10%differenceinoutcomesforexample.Although studies. with relatively small samples and relatively short follow- The purpose of this study was to review the existing up, the overwhelming majority of studies did not find literatureabouttheimpactofurethroplastyinalldomainsof statisticallysignificantdegradationoferectilefunctionafter sexualfunctionandtoanalyzeit. urethroplastycomparedtobaseline.
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