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Patients with neurogenic disorders and voiding dysfunction have been reported to respond poorly to sacral neuromodulation. We report on our experience in treating voiding symptoms with sacral neuromodulation after spinal surgery. The medical charts of patients evaluated for sacral neuromodulation from 2000–2008 were retrospectively reviewed. Indications, need for explantation, and clinical success (>50% symptom improvement) were recorded. The cohort of patients who had undergone prior spinal surgery was compared to patients with no history of spinal surgery or neurological disease. Thirty-two patients with a history of spinal surgery and 136 with no history of neurologic disease underwent sacral neuromodulation testing. Twenty men and women (62.5%) from the spinal surgery group ultimately underwent permanent implantation. Seventeen of the 32 patients were diagnosed with urge incontinence, of whom 52.9% reported a successful outcome at a mean of 2.3 years of follow-up, compared to an 80.3% success rate in patients with no history of spinal surgery (p = 0.018). Sixteen of 32 carried a diagnosis of urgency/frequency with 62.5% success at last follow-up, compared 73.9% (p = 0.35) of those without a history of spinal surgery or neurological disease. Thirteen of 32 patients diagnosed with urinary retention experienced a 61.5% long-term success rate, compared with 63.6% for those without spinal surgery and urinary retention. Six of 20 (30.0%) in the spinal surgery group were explanted at a mean time of 2.9 years, compared with 27 of 102 (26.5%) of the non-neurologic patients. Clinical success can be achieved using sacral neuromodulation in patients with voiding dysfunction and a history of spinal surgery; however, those with urge incontinence are less likely to report significant improvement.

At our institution, the majority of buccal mucosal graft urethroplasties are performed using a two-team approach with an otolaryngologic surgeon. We report our two-surgeon experience with buccal mucosal grafting for reconstruction of all anterior urethral strictures. Twenty-four men underwent autologous buccal mucosal graft urethroplasty between October 2001 and September 2008 for recurrent urethral stricture disease. Twenty-two underwent a single-stage repair and two underwent a two-stage repair. Medical charts were retrospectively reviewed for demographics, comorbidities, etiology, location and length of stricture, and prior interventions in order to identify predictors of buccal urethroplasty success, defined as no evidence of stricture recurrence. All patients underwent retrograde urethrogram and cystoscopy. Operative and anesthesia times were evaluated. We determined an overall success rate of 83.3% (20 of 24 cases). Mean anesthesia time for single-stage urethroplasty was 155 min and mean operative time was 123 min. One of the two two-stage urethroplasties experienced stricture recurrence (50%). The single-stage buccal graft success rate was 86.4% (19 of 22 cases). Two of the four who developed recurrent stricture disease that required intervention had undergone a previous mesh urethroplasty. Complications developed in four of 24 patients (16.6%), including superficial wound infection (one), superficial wound dehiscence (two), and abscess/fistula formation requiring reoperation (one). The buccal mucosa is an ideal tissue for both single- and two-stage substitution urethroplasty for patients with recurrent stricture disease. Our two-surgeon technique minimizes anesthesia and operative times, and contributes to the overall high success rate and relatively low complication rate.

A 23-year-old female was involved in a motor vehicle collision with multiple injuries, including a right acetabular fracture, but no pelvic fracture. Urology consultation was obtained due to difficulty placing a urethral catheter. Examination revealed a longitudinal urethral tear with vaginal laceration extending 2 cm from the urethral meatus proximally toward the bladder neck. The longitudinal urethral tear was repaired primarily. Traumatic female urethral injury in the absence of a pelvic fracture is an exceedingly rare occurrence.