A urethral stricture is a narrowing of the urethra^[1] caused by injury or disease such as urinary tract infections or other forms of urethritis.

Presentation

During the early stages of the condition, the subject may experience pain during urination and the inability to fully empty the bladder. It is not uncommon for the bladder’s capacity to significantly increase due to this inability to completely void.

Urethral strictures may cause problems with urination, including in certain cases the complete inability to urinate, which is a medical emergency.

Causes of Urethral stricture

Urethral strictures are generally caused by either injury-related trauma to the tract or by a viral or bacterial infection of the tract, often caused by certain STD’s. The body’s attempt to repair the damage caused by the injury or infection creates a buildup of scar tissue in the tract resulting in a significant narrowing or even closure of the passage. Instrumentation of the urethra, particularly before the advent of flexible uro-endoscopy, was (and remains) an important causative event.

Short strictures in the bulbar urethra, particularly between the proximal 1/3 and distal 2/3 of the bulb, may be congenital. They probably form as a membrane at the junction between the posterior and anterior urethral segments. It is not usually noticeable until later in life, as it fails to widen as the urethra does with growth, thus it only impedes urinary flow relative to the rest of the urethra after puberty. Moreover, the patient will often not “know any different”, and so will not complain about poor flow.

The urethra runs between the legs very close to the skin, leaving it vulnerable to trauma. Simply falling off a bike and hitting between the legs may result in the formation of scar tissue within the urethra tract. This condition is often not found until the patient has problems urinating because these are painless growths of scar tissue.

Passage of kidney stones through the urethra can be painful and subsequently can lead to urethral strictures.

In infants and toddlers, can be as a result of inflammation following a circumcision and not noticeable until toilet training when a deflected stream is observed or when the child must strain to produce a urinary stream.

Clinical features

Symptoms of Urethral stricture

• Obstructive voiding symptoms namely:
  • Decreased force of urinary stream
  • Incomplete emptying of the bladder
  • Urinary terminal dribbling
  • Urinary intermittency
  • Deflected urinary stream

• Increased frequency of Micturation
• Acute or Chronic Retention of Urine

Signs

• Hydronephrotic Signs due to back pressure

Complications for Urethral stricture

• Urinary retention
• Urethral diverticulum
• Periurethral abscess
• Urethral fistula
• Bilateral hydronephrosis
• Urinary infections
• Urinary calculus
• Hernia, haemorrhoids or Rectal prolapse from straining

Diagnosis for Urethral stricture

• Urethroscopy
• Urethrography

Treatment of Urethral stricture

Instrumental Treatment

• Intermittent dilatation (at suitable intervals, twice a week 1st, once a week for month, once a month for a year, then once every year)
• Bougies of increasing size (gum, elastic, continuous dilatation)
• Continuous dilatation

Operative Treatment

• Internal urethrotomy
• Urethroplasty

Homeopathy Treatment for Urethral stricture

Keywords: homeopathy, homeopathic, treatment, cure, remedy, remedies, medicine

Homeopathy treats the person as a whole. It means that homeopathic treatment focuses on the patient as a person, as well as his pathological condition. The homeopathic medicines are selected after a full individualizing examination and case-analysis, which includes the medical history of the patient, physical and mental constitution, family history, presenting symptoms, underlying pathology, possible causative factors etc. A miasmatic tendency (predisposition/susceptibility) is also often taken into account for the treatment of chronic conditions. A homeopathy doctor tries to treat more than just the presenting symptoms. The focus is usually on what caused the disease condition? Why ‘this patient’ is sick ‘this way’. The disease diagnosis is important but in homeopathy, the cause of disease is not just probed to the level of bacteria and viruses. Other factors like mental, emotional and physical stress that could predispose a person to illness are also looked for. No a days, even modern medicine also considers a large number of diseases as psychosomatic. The correct homeopathy remedy tries to correct this disease predisposition. The focus is not on curing the disease but to cure the person who is sick, to restore the health. If a disease pathology is not very advanced, homeopathy remedies do give a hope for cure but even in incurable cases, the quality of life can be greatly improved with homeopathic medicines.

The homeopathic remedies (medicines) given below indicate the therapeutic affinity but this is not a complete and definite guide to the homeopathy treatment of this condition. The symptoms listed against each homeopathic remedy may not be directly related to this disease because in homeopathy general symptoms and constitutional indications are also taken into account for selecting a remedy. To study any of the following remedies in more detail, please visit the Materia Medica section at www.homeopathydoctor.pk.

None of these medicines should be taken without professional advice and guidance.

Homeopathy Remedies for Urethral stricture :

Acon., apis., agar., ant-t., apis., arg-n., arn., bell., berb., calc., calc-i., cann-s., canth., chim., chin., cic., cinnb., clem., con., dig., dulc., eucal., graph., indg., iod., kali-i., lob., merc., nat-m., nat-s., nit-ac., op., petr., petros., phos., puls., sep., sil., sul-i., sulph., tarent., thios., thuj.

References

1: MacDonald MF, Al-Qudah HS, Santucci RA.Minimal impact urethroplasty allows same-day surgery in most patients.Urology. 2005 Oct;66(4):850-3. PMID: 16230151

2: Al-Qudah HS, Cavalcanti AG, Santucci RA.Early catheter removal after anterior anastomotic (3 days) and ventral buccal mucosal onlay (7 days) urethroplasty.Int Braz J Urol. 2005 Sep-Oct;31(5):459-63; discussion 464. PMID: 16255792

3: Santucci RA, McAninch JW, Mario LA, Rajpurkar A, Chopra AK, Miller KS, Armenakas NA, Tieng EB, Morey AF.Urethroplasty in patients older than 65 years: indications, results, outcomes and suggested treatment modifications.J Urol. 2004 Jul;172(1):201-3. PMID: 15201773

4: Kizer WS, Armenakas NA, Brandes SB, Cavalcanti AG, Santucci RA, Morey AF.Simplified reconstruction of posterior urethral disruption defects: limited role of supracrural rerouting.J Urol. 2007 Apr;177(4):1378-81; discussion 1381-2. PMID: 17382736

5: Al-Qudah HS, Santucci RA.Extended complications of urethroplasty.Int Braz J Urol. 2005 Jul-Aug;31(4):315-23; discussion 324-5. Review. PMID: 16137399

6: Santucci RA, Mario LA, McAninch JW.Anastomotic urethroplasty for bulbar urethral stricture: analysis of 168 patients.J Urol. 2002 Apr;167(4):1715-9. PMID: 11912394

1. ^ “Urethral stricture: What causes it? – MayoClinic.com“. Retrieved on 2007-12-13.

Essentials of Surgery 4th Edition 2007 by Professor Muhammad Shamim

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