EXPERIENCE WITH LYOPHILIZED HUMAN DURA MATTER FOR URETHRAL STRICTURES

Purpose: We report our results using lyophilized human dura mater for urethral strictures. Materials and Methods: The results of 131 urethro plasties using lyophilized human dura mater grafts were reviewed. The etiology of the stricture was unknown in most cases and 44.3% had not been previously treated. Mean stricture length was 10 cm. A dura mater patch was used in 124 cases and tubular graft in 7. Results: Average followup was 56.6 months. The overall complication rate during the fir st month was 16.3%. At 6 months the graft failed in 2 cases and 25.2% had stricture recurrence. Good results were obtained in the longer ter m in 41.1% of cases, with a high recurrence rate and malignancy in 4 c ases (3.2%) which required penectomy. Conclusions: Despite being a bio logically well tolerated material, lyophilized human dura mater is not good for urethral strictures because of the high number of relapses a nd possibility of malignancy.