What causes bulbar urethral stricture?
Bulbar urethral stricture can arise from a variety of causes but most commonly occurs when the urethra has been exposed to manipulation from e.g. a repeated treatment of brachytherapy (a form of prostate cancer treatment), prostatectomy, or from use of urethral catheters.
Can you live with a urethral stricture?
If left untreated, a urethral stricture can cause serious problems, including bladder and kidney damage, infections caused by the obstruction of urine flow, and poor ejaculation and infertility in men. Fortunately, strictures can be successfully treated.
What are the signs and symptoms of urethral stricture?
Signs and symptoms of urethral stricture include:
- Decreased urine stream.
- Incomplete bladder emptying.
- Spraying of the urine stream.
- Difficulty, straining or pain when urinating.
- Increased urge to urinate or more-frequent urination.
- Urinary tract infection.
What is VIU surgery?
VIU (Visual Internal Urethromy) is done when stricture is treated at bulbous urethra. It’s a not a definitive treatment for stricture urethra because in most of cases repeated VIU treatment is required. Ultimately it leads to high cost to the patient.
Can CT scan detect urethral stricture?
Computed tomography (CT) urethrography has the advantage of examining patients only in one position, and by generating three-dimensional images; it can accurately measure the stricture length.
What is VIU in urology?
What is the bulbar urethra?
Description. The bulbar urethra is a segment of the male urethra that is in between the penile urethra and the membrano-prostatic urethra that typically has a robust blood supply. This blood supply includes antegrade flow from the paired bulbar arteries and circumflex arteries, and retrograde flow from the paired dorsal arteries of the penis .
Does dissecting the bulbar urethra affect erectile dysfunction?
Dissecting the bulbar urethra destroys the antegrade blood flow. However, this urethra still does well since in still gets retrograde blood flow from the dorsal arteries. When patients have erectile dysfunction, the dorsal arteries do not work well and therefore the bulbar urethra does not get a good blood supply.
Can a bulbar urethral stricture develop slowly?
However, in many cases, a bulbar urethral stricture develops slowly over time, caused by the development of a scar and the growth of scar tissue as the injury heals. The oftentimes slow development of a stricture in the bulbar urethra means that some patients may not even remember the specific injury that led to the stricture.
Does urethral stricture cause erectile dysfunction (ED)?
The urethral stricture and pelvic fracture urethral injury (PFUI) literature recognizes an association between erectile dysfunction (ED) and ejaculatory dysfunction (Feng et al ., 2008; Erickson et al ., 2010a ). It is postulated that surgical treatment of urethral stricture itself might affect sexual function.