Help understanding urethral strictures - Patient Perspectives
Posted , 6 users are following.
Hello, Are you satisfied with current treatment options for urethral strictures? Would you be interested in helping develop a new type of treatment option for addressing this problem? I'm part of a team of bioengineers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD working on a project that is seeking to develop a novel method to treat urethral strictures. I am seeking to understand what your experience has been with current treatments options and what your preferences are for alternative treatments.
I would to love to be able to have short phone interviews with anyone that is interested in sharing their experience, but this form can serve as a place to express frustrations or praises for your urologists ability to treat your strictures.
0 likes, 6 replies
Glass4008
Posted
How did you urologist introduce the options that you had to treat your condition?
Would you be interested in sharing how many urethrotomies or dilations you've had to treat your stricture?
Did you have any complications with your urethrotomy or dilation?
When did they tell you you should get a urethroplasty?
If you had the option of an alternative procedure, what are the most important features to you? Number of visits associated with the procedure, preference of devices, like a urethral stent, left in your urethra, post-op care regime, recurrence rate of stricture associated with the treatment?
Thanks so much for your stories and thoughts! It's really appreciated!
Guest Glass4008
Posted
I did have a meatal stricture, caused I believe by the crude and rough emergency insertion of a foley catheter during admission in February 2015 for the retention a year ago. The stricture was preventing the insertion of ISC catheters and a flexible cytoscope; they opted to dilate under general anaesthetic before conducting a rigid cystoscopy during the same operation, in May 2015. The stricture has not (as of February 2016) returned since that dilation. I self-catheterise in order to void, four times a day, which presumably helps keep any potential stricture at bay.
Whatever the cause of my retention, it seems to be permanent - my bladder is very distended now by extreme retention, and exhibits only 20% of the muscle tone necessary to urinate. At admission last year it held around 2.5 litres of blood and urine, and it seems unlikely that it will ever recover tone and shape.
I don't think my experience will be relevant to your study, but I am interested in following its progress.
james06284 Glass4008
Posted
by two months I was having a suprapubic inserted on a trolley in the hallway at midnight, so there was no real discussion about options, the next day a Urethrotomy was carried out on the bladder neck stricture. Two months later another Urethrotomy due to stricture closing again. Again there was no other options discussed.
In hindsight if they recognised my urinary retention symptoms at the start then dilation could have been carried out instead of Urethrotomy. Self dilation should have been commenced after the first Urethrotomy. Why carry out a second (or more) Urethrotomys when the results are so poor and by doing so seems to have ruled out Urethraplasty in my case due to cutting close to the sphincter.
My issue with the self dilation balloon catheter is the difficulty inserting it due to it's flatness when the balloon is undilated, which leaves the two edges feeling sharp. It does have the advantage of 26Fr when dilated.
While the first Urethrotomy procedure was to fix the bladder neck stricture it caused another stricture in the urethra due to either the dilation or the catheter.
I was told by my Uro that I'm not a suitable candidate for Urethraplasty due to the closenes of the stricture to the sphincter ..but I would prefer to hear that from the specialist.
Regards alternative treatment: I would like a treatment that repaired the tissue preventing further Strictures without causing incontinence. Urethral stents seem to have issues with skin growth causing difficult removal of the stent. Stent migration also seems to be an issue.
Regarding stricture recurrence: I cannot afford another Urethrotomy as my Urologist stated it would risk incontinence due to the stricture proximity to the sphincter.
James
Glass4008 james06284
Posted
Joseph
robert61728 Glass4008
Posted
sathyanath95160 Glass4008
Posted
I was diagnosed with std after 14 days of exposure and had given antibioticsome for seven days. Post treatment when I ejaculated I have got dysuria after 5 hours. Is this std caused urethral sticture?