Urethral STRICTURE SURGERY – (Narrowing of Urinary passage)
If a patient is suffering from ureteral stones, then his or her treatment depends completely on the size of the stone, the symptoms, type of stone and what is the cause of the stone. Most of the stones can be managed by fluid intake, diet control and pain relievers. Sometimes the pain management and passing of the stone is completely dependent on medications, so that things may pass on with reduced pain. So, these kind of occurrences does not require surgery or medical procedure to remove the stones.
Treating small stones with mild symptoms:
For extended, longer and re-occurring urethral strictures surgery is usually a mandate, because these treatments do not respond to the treatment of dilation. Surgery is usually required to broaden and widen or remove the narrowed section of the urethra. At MKM Stone and Urology Centre, our urologists perform two types of procedures for the urethral strictures: urethrotomy and urethroplasty.
Urethrotomy:
In this procedure, the surgeon will use a special endoscope that is a thin tube like instrument with light embedded on to its tip. This type of endoscope helps to locate the place where incision can be made in the part of the urethra that blocks the flow of the urine. This incision helps in widening of the stricture. After this procedure, a catheter is left inside the channel for few days to divert the flow of urine from the urethra due to proper healing process.
This complete procedure only requires an overnight stay in the hospital. After the procedure patient may feel discomfort and pain for up to two weeks, so for pain management doctor may prescribe pain relief medication as it necessitates. Avoidance of sexual intercourse for at least one week is highly recommended after the procedure.
Urethroplasty:
The surgeons at MKM Stone and Urology Hospital are amongst a handful in Bhopal City who are well versed to perform urethroplasty. In this procedure the surgeon removes the scar tissue to widen the urethra. Here at our center, surgeons are specialized in performing urethroplasty for strictures caused by the radiation therapy used for prostate cancer. This surgery is done after the doctor observes that there has been failure in the urethral dilation so as to fix the stricture.
In urethroplasty, urologist locates and removes the narrowed section of the urethra so that he can join the two left out healthy pieces together. If the segment on which the procedure has to be performed is too long to be removed, the urologist may use the tissue from other parts of the body like mouth , cheek , toungue or from penile skin to recreate the normal size of the urethra. This increases the length of the urethra and will specifically allow the flow of the urine to be smooth without any difficulty.
This procedure is performed under the inpatient category, allowing the patient to go home by 4 or 5th postoperatively day. A catheter remains inside for two to three weeks to help in the flow of urine till the time urethra heals. The long-term success rate of this procedure is quiet high, approximately 80-90 % of the people who have had urethroplasty expects permanent relief from the stricture and its associated issues.
Follow-up protocol is very essential to carry out for this procedure so as to claim its success rate.