Early catheter removal after anterior anastomotic (3 days) and ventral buccal mucosal onlay (7 days) urethroplasty.

INTRODUCTION Physicians who perform urethroplasty have varying opinions about when the urinary catheter should be removed post-operatively, but research on this subject has not yet appeared in the literature. We performed voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) on our anterior urethroplasty patients on days 3 (anastomotic) and 7 (buccal) in an effort to determine the earliest day for removal of the urethral catheter. MATERIALS AND METHODS Retrospective chart review of 29 urethroplasty patients from October 2002-August 2004 was performed at two reconstructive urology centers. 17 patients had early catheter removal (12 anastomotic and 5 ventral buccal onlay urethroplasty) and were compared to 12 who had late removal (7 anastomotic and 5 buccal). RESULTS Of those with early catheter removal, 2/12 (17%) of anastomotic urethroplasty patients had extravasation, which resolved by the following week and 0/5 (0%) of the buccal mucosal urethroplasty patients had extravasation. Patients with late catheter removal underwent VCUG 6-14 days (mean 8 days) after anastomotic urethroplasty and 9-14 days (mean 12 days) after buccal mucosal urethroplasty. 0% of the anastomotic urethroplasty had leakage after the late VCUG and 1/5 (20%) of the buccal patients had extravasation after the VCUG. Recurrences were low in all patient groups. CONCLUSION Catheter removal after anastomotic and buccal mucosal urethroplasty can be safely attempted on the 3rd and 7th post-operative days respectively, with a low rate of extravasation on VCUG. Eliminating the catheter as soon as possible should improve patient comfort without harming results and decrease the overall negative impact of surgery on the patient.