Does the early removal of urethral stent can reduce postoperative complications of Snodgrass urethroplasty for hypospadias repair? A prospective randomized trial

Abstract

Background: Hypospadias is a relatively common congenital defect of the male external genitalia. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the early removal of urethral stent following TIP Snodgrass repair of hypospadias can reduces postoperative complications of this procedure.Methods: In Al-Yarmouk teaching hospital, the surgical procedure included 61 tabularized incised plate (TIP) repairs for penile hypospadias. The patients were prospectively observed over 36 months and randomized into 2 groups, group (A) was 30 patients where the urethral stent was removed after 24 hours of operation, and group (B) was 31 cases where the stent removed in the 6th postoperative day. Suprapubic urinary diversion was done for all patients. All of the operations were performed by the same surgeon. Complications and cosmetic appearance were documented at last follow-up.Results: The average age of the patients was 3.9 years, urethrocutaneous fistula was observed in 2 cases in group A (6.6 %), while 11 patients had fistula in group B (35.4 %) with a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). meatal stenosis was reported in 4 patients in (group A) (13.3%), while 12 patients had such complication in group B (38.7%) with a statistically Significant difference as (P< 0.05). 6.6 % of group A developed wound infection, while 32.2 % had wound infection postoperatively in group B with a statistically significant difference (P< 0.05). Complete surgical failure when wound dehiscence occurs, it was found that no significant difference between the 2 groups (P value=0.1).Conclusions: TIP repair is a versatile operation that can be performed in almost all cases of penile hypospadias. We believe that early stent removal after 1 day of surgery for hypospadias repair simplifies postoperative care, highly reduces risk of development of urethrocutaneous fistula, meatal stenosis and wound infection, so obviates the need for antibiotics.