History of direct vision internal urethrotomy.

Throughout medical history, the treatment of urethral strictures ranged from catheterization, the insertion of bougies, and the application of caustics to different methods of dilation, blind internal urethrotomy, and open surgery. The rise of endoscopy in the 19th century added the possibility of direct vision internal urethrotomy to this therapeutic spectrum. The development of this endourologic method is recapitulated from the first report in 1865 to the gold standard of cold knife urethrotomy in 1971 and later modifications (eg, advanced laser techniques).