How wide a urethra should we produce?

The meatal/urethral width in healthy uncircumcised boys

“…Although the native, proximal urethra in an individual patient should serve as the reference size in hypospadias repair, as reported earlier [3], we believe that the agedependent chart of urethral growth that we present may additionally facilitate surgical practice.…”

“…In the age group of 2e4 years, a difference of 0.7 mm in diameter results in a 2-fold calculated difference in urine flow. As previously reported, in most patients, the external meatus is considerably narrower than the normal native urethra, proximal to the bifurcation of the corpus spongiosum [3]. Thus by repairing the neourethra to a size equal to the external meatus, the urine flow may be considerably reduced.…”

“…This age range is when the majority of hypospadias repairs are completed. It was previously demonstrated that normal urethral sizes in the literature are close to the sizes of the native urethra proximal to the bifurcation of the corpus spongiosum in hypospadias [3]. The data of Litvak et al are still being used for reference.…”