[Clinical trial of the effect of urethral catheter on the etiology of urethral stenosis following transurethral resection of the prostate].

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the effect of the urethral catheter and urethral secretions in the development of urethral stricture post-transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP).

METHODS

A clinical study was conduced on 109 patients treated by TURP. The patients were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: A (suprapubic catheter), B (urethral catheter), C (urethral cleansing). The incidence of urethral stricture in the different groups was compared using the chi-square test and survival was analyzed by the Kaplan Meier method.

RESULTS

5 patients were lost to follow-up (4.5%). The median number of days the catheter was indwelling was one day for group A, and 4 days for groups B and C. The overall incidence of urethral stricture was 4.3%; by groups the incidence was 3.8% for group A, 3% for B and 5.9% for group C. The differences were not statistically significant.

CONCLUSION

The study showed no statistically significant differences in the incidence of post-TURP urethral stenosis in patients with a suprapubic or urethral catheter. Furthermore, urethral stenosis was not less frequent in patients in whom urethral cleansing was performed.