Urethral substitution using vein graft for hypospadias repair.

OBJECTIVE: Complex hypospadias surgery requires abundant and stretchable tissues for urethroplasty. Genital skin is ideal for this purpose but is often unavailable in re-do cases. Extragenital tissues have their drawbacks such as the limited length of buccal and bladder mucosa, and contracture of skin grafts. Tubularization and on-lay techniques comprise one or two longitudinal suture lines that are the source of complications. We investigate the possibility of using a saphenous vein graft to construct a long, wide, stretchable and pre-tubularized neourethra that is not compromised by the longitudinal suture line. PATIENT AND METHOD: A male patient with proximal hypospadias for which surgical correction had failed underwent the operation. The patient had a penoscrotal meatus and was circumcised. A saphenous vein graft was passed through a tunnel created on the ventral aspect of the penis, and was anastomosed to the urethra proximally and the distal opening of the tunnel at the tip of the penis. RESULTS: After 12 months, the patient had a forward stream, no dilatation of the neourethra, and no penile curvature upon morning erection (as reported by the parents). CONCLUSION: This initial experience with saphenous vein urethroplasty shows that the technique is feasible, and may provide a reliable and practical alternative to the current techniques.

Laparoscopy-assisted pelvi-scrotal vasovasostomy.

Iatrogenic obstruction of the vas deferens within the inguinal canal can be managed by direct on-site vasovasostomy. However, in cases with large defect of the vas, the anastomosis may be under tension. Dissecting through the site of a previous hernia repair is tedious, and may lead to recurrence of the hernia. The present work reports an, first of a kind, alternative technique that avoids the latter drawbacks. Fifteen cases were operated upon. Under laparoscopic vision, the pelvic vas was dissected and the lateral-most end was clipped, cut and extruded from the abdomen through a port in the external inguinal ring. End-to-end vasovasostomy and microsurgical anastomosis for the vasal vessels were performed, bridging the retrieved stump of the pelvic vas with the scrotal vas. There were positive results in the form of sperm count ranging from 1.5 to 15 million ml(-1), an average of 7.25 (SD 5.44) in nine of 15 cases (60%), within the first 6 months following surgery. "Pelvi-scrotal vasovasostomy" can be offered as a cost-effective and successful alternative or supplement to intracytoplasmic sperm injection, for cases with iatrogenic large defects of the vas deferens within the inguinal canal.