STRICTURE RECURRENCE AFTER OPTICAL INTERNAL URETHROTOMY WITH AND WITHOUT CLEAN INTERMITTENT SELF CATHETERIZATION IN URETHRAL STRICTURE

Background: The treatment of urethral stricture is usually not difficult but the problem lies in high rate of recurrence. All types of surgical procedures for urethral stricture have complication of stricture recurrence in different proportions. The objective of this randomized clinical trial was to compare the stricture recurrence after optical internal urethrotomy with and without clean intermittent self catheterization in patients with urethral stricture. Materials & Methods: Total 120 patients aging 20-60 years with urethral stricture of up to 1.5 cm and up to six months duration were included. Patients with traumatic urethral stricture, congenital or malignant strictures were excluded. All selected cases were randomized into two groups by lottery method. In treatment group 1, optical internal urethrotomy was done with clean intermittent self catheterization. In control group 2, optical internal urethrotomy was done without clean intermittent self catheterization. Results: Mean age of patients in treatment group 1 was 47.73 ± 7.31 years and in control group 2 was 47.91 ± 8.24 years. Majority of patients 41 (34.17%) were in the age group of 51 to 60 years. Mean (SD) duration of stricture was 2.69 ± 1.86 months. Mean length of stricture was 0.91 ± 0.56 cm. Recurrence of stricture was seen in 13/60 (21.67%) patients in group 1 and 29/60 (48.33%) patients in group 2 with statistically significantly less rate in group 1 (p-value 0.0021). Conclusion: This study concluded that there is less stricture recurrence rate after optical internal urethrotomy with clean intermittent self catheterization in urethral stricture treatment.