Stents and urethral strictures: a lesson learned?

摘要

Originally developed for vascular use, the concept of maintaining the patency of a lumen with a self-retaining endoprosthesis dates back to 1969. In 1980, Fabian was the first to describe the use of a stent in the lower urinary tract to maintain patency of the prostatic urethra in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia . Subsequently, the indications expanded to include treatment of detrusor sphincter dyssynergia due to spinal cord injury and, in 1988, treatment of urethral strictures .Initially, a temporary Urocoil stent was tested, but since 1990 the permanent Urolume has been advocated as the endoprosthesis of choice for urethral stricture disease; it is a biocompatible stent made from a super-alloy and woven into a tubularmesh .After initial enthusiasm and expanding indications for various stenoses, the stents have been shown to fail in posterior strictures resulting from pelvic trauma or from prostatic surgery [1,3]. To date they have not been promoted for use in penile strictures.