The role of internal urethrotomy in the prevention of urethral stricture following transurethral resection of prostate.

Urethral stricture is the commonest late complication of transurethral prostatectomy. Although internal urethrotomy is widely practised to prevent structures, there are no reports of any controlled trials of the procedure. A prospective trial of internal urethrotomy, using the Otis urethrotome, in 210 consecutive transurethral prostatectomies is presented. Patients were divided into 2 groups, those undergoing urethrotomy before TUR ("Trial group") and those undergoing TUR without urethrotomy ("Control group"), and they were followed for a minimum of 6 months. The incidence of stricture in the control group was significantly greater than in the trial group (P less than 0.01). Analysis of all other variables revealed no difference between the 2 groups and it is concluded that internal urethrotomy does prevent stricture formation and that it should be undertaken routinely before transurethral resection.