This study indicates that impotent men have a lower quality of life than potent men and has confirmed previous findings that age is associated with impotence. Surprisingly, answers to impotence questions were also associated with geographical location.

The free, full thickness skin graft urethroplasty, which has been used successfully for 20 years, was first adopted for anterior urethral strictures at our hospital in 1969. Presently, 66 cases of urethral stricture have been treated, 5 of them for posterior urethral strictures. The free, full thickness tube graft technique is discussed and 3 cases are reported. Of the 66 cases 54 (84 per cent) had good results. When indicated this procedure is advocated with considerable enthusiasm.

We reviewed 161 patients operated upon for renal cell carcinoma between 1945 and 1978. Life table and survival analyses were computed to compare the effects of stage, tumor differentiation, cell type, surgical technique, renal vein involvement and sex on the years of survival. Patients with stage I and well differentiated tumors had the best prognosis. All patients surviving 10 years or more had well differentiated tumors. The type of nephrectomy did not affect survival and lymphadenectomy was only of value in staging the disease. The stage and differentiation of the tumor were more important to outcome than choice of therapy.

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Except for its linkage with the ergot derivatives retroperitoneal fibrosis is a disease of unknown etiology. Two cases in which the traditional surgical approach was used but with the subsequent use of steroids are presented. The third patient was treated with steroids alone. The use of steroids alone is suggested for a limited number of poor risk patients when certain criteria are met.