Abnormal urethrogram in bulbar urethritis of male childhood

Bulbar urethritis (idiopathic urethrorrhagia (Kaplan & Brock, 1982)) is a condition affecting male children usually between the ages of 5 and 15 years. In a series of 17 patients described by Williams and Mikhael (1971) the commonest symptoms were blood-stained urethral discharge, urethral bleeding separate from micturition and mild dysuria. Urethroscopy shows inflammatory changes in the bulbar urethra but radiological investigations, including voiding cystourethrography, are universally claimed to be normal (Segura, 1976; Retik, 1981; Johnston, 1982; Kaplan & Brock, 1982). We report a boy with this condition in whom we were able to demonstrate radiological changes in the urethra.