Predictors of urethral stricture recurrence following internal urethrotomy: A systematic review.

Objective: To estimate the factors associated with urethral stricture recurrence in patients undergoing internal urethrotomy by direct vision.

Methods: A systematic review was performed in MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE, LILACS, and central databases. Clinical, quasi-experimental, cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional trials were included.

Results: The search strategy found 402 studies, and 6 were finally included. All of them were clinical trials. A total of 1723 patients diagnosed with urethral stricture undergoing internal urethrotomy were included. The primary associated factor was the association between the length of stricture and recurrence. Other factors described were post-RTU as etiology, previous interventions for urethral stricture management, and previous Qmax on uroflowmetry less than 5 ml/s.

Conclusion: The length of urethral stricture was identified as the leading association with stricture recurrence following internal urethrotomy. Other associated factors were post-URT as etiology, previous interventions for managing stricture, and Qmax less than 5 ml/s. However, studies with better methodology are required.