Introduction: We determine the preoperative identifiable risk factors during staging that predict stricture recurrence after urethroplasty. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of all urethroplasties performed at a Canadian tertiary referral centre from 2003 to 2012. Failure was defined as a recurrent stricture <16 Fr on cystoscopic assessment. Multivariate analysis was calculated by Cox proportional hazard regression. Results: In total, 604 of 651 (93%) urethroplasties performed had adequate data with a mean follow-up of 52 months. Overall urethral patency was 90.7% with failures occurring between 2 weeks and 77 months postoperatively. The average time to recurrence was 11.7 months, with most patients with recurrence within 6 months (42/56; 75%). Multivariate regression identified Lichen sclerosus, iatrogenic, and infectious etiologies to be independently associated with stricture recurrence with hazard ratios (HR) (95% confidence interval) of 5.9 (2.1-16.5; p ≤ 0.001), 3.4 (1.2-10; p = 0.02), and 7.3 (2.3-23.7; p ≤ 0.001), respectively. Strictures ≥5cm recurred significantly more often (13.8% vs. 5.9%) with a HR 2.3 (1.2-4.5; p ≤ 0.01). Comorbidities, smoking, previous urethroplasty, stricture location and an age ≥50 were not associated with recurrence. Conclusion: Urethroplasty in general is an excellent treatment for urethral stricture with patency rates approaching 91%. While recurrences occur over 6 years after surgery, most (75%) recur within the first 6 months. Long segment strictures (≥5 cm), as well as Lichen sclerosus, infectious and iatrogenic etiologies, are associated with increased risk of recurrence. Limitations include the retrospective, single-centre nature of the study and the 7% loss to follow-up due to the centre being a regional referral one.

Reconstruction of radiation-induced bulbomembranous stenosis yields satisfying patency rates. However, radiation-induced urethral stenosis is not an isolated problem as many patients suffer from storage symptoms, erectile dysfunction or incontinence as a consequence of treatment either before or after urethroplasty.

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found to be correlated with surgical complexity. The number of strictures (p¼0.17) was not found to be significantly associated with surgical complexity.CONCLUSIONS: The U-score is a reliable, validated grading scale to describe the surgical complexity of anterior urethral strictures which correlates with surgical time and complexity of procedure. The Uscore is a valuable tool to grade anterior urethral strictures and, thus, potentially improve comparative research. The lack of significance of stricture number in the validation data set may be due to variance in high complexity procedures.