Results of urethral plate preservation and use of vascular dartos flap in hypospadias repair

Abstract

Background: Lower complication rates are observed if urethral plate (UP) is preserved and utilized for reparative surgery of hypospadias.Aim: This study aims to analyze our results of hypospadias repair by UP preservation, and using vascular dartos flap as interposition flap.Materials and Methods: prospective, cohort study of operated cases of hypospadias over 4.5 years' period. Data including age, diagnosis, preoperative testosterone administration, operation, postoperative complications, and assessment of outcome using hypospadias objective scoring evaluation (HOSE) system were collected. We preserved UP as far as possible, for urethral tube construction. We applied meatal advancement and glanuloplasty incorporated (MAGPI) for glanular/coronal hypospadias and tubularized incised plate urethroplasty (TIPU) (Snodgrass) for most other cases. Single dorsal vascular dartos-flap was transposed ventrally as interposition flap in TIPU. Single transurethral catheter 6F/8F size was employed as urethral stent as well as for bladder drainage. At the first review at 2 weeks after getting discharged, all patients underwent urethral calibration and first HOSE-score assessment. Maximum HOSE-score was 16 points and minimum 5.Results: A total of 111 patients with mean (range) age of 34.69 m (11 m– 123 m) were studied. TIPU (n = 49), MAGPI (n = 44), and others (n = 18) were the operations. There were 10 permanent complications; 9 following TIPU (7 (14.3%) single urethrocutaneous fistula (UCF), 1 torsion penis, 1 glans-dehiscence), and 1 following MAGPI (glans-dehiscence). Mean follow-up period was 15 m (range = 3–36 m). HOSE score ≥14 was achieved in 106 (95.5%) cases.Conclusion: The excellent result of MAGPI in our series is due to strict case selection and technical precision. UCF rate of 14.3% in TIPU can be due to the unselected nature of our cases which included small glans diameter and unfavorable UP characteristics.