BACTERIOLOGICAL, HISTOLOGIC AND ULTRASONOGRAPHIC FINDINGS IN STRICTURES RECURRING AFTER URETHROTOMY - A PRELIMINARY-STUDY

Twelve men with recurrent anterior urethral stricture after endoscopic urethrotomy (2-12 attempts) underwent open urethroplasty with en bloc removal of diseased urethral segments. Bacteriologic and histologic s tudies of the excised urethral tracts (mucosa and spongiosum tissue) w ere performed. The bacteriologic findings were compared with the resul ts of preoperative urine cultures and urethral swabs for chlamydia. Th e histologic findings were related to preoperative ultrasonographic ob servations, in order to evaluate the accuracy of ultrasonography in de picting structural changes in spongiosum around the strictured urethra l tract. Beta-haemolytic streptococci and Streptococcus faecalis were cultured from the excised spongiosum, without correlation to the preop erative culture results. The histologic studies confirmed the usefulne ss of urethral ultrasonography for accurate demonstration of the infla mmatory changes involving spongiosum around the strictures.