Etiology and current clinical characteristics of male urethral stricture disease: experience from a public teaching hospital in Senegal.

OBJECTIVE

To identify the etiology and current clinical characteristics of male urethral stricture disease (USD) in Senegal.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A retrospective and mono-centric study over a 10-year period (between January 1999 and December 2008) was carried out and included all male patients with USD admitted to the Urology Department of Aristide Le-Dantec Hospital (Dakar).

RESULTS

We recorded 414 USD cases. The maximum annual incidence was observed in 2004, and from then, the incidence tended to decrease gradually. The mean age of patients was 43.7 ± 19.6 years (1-89 years), and 43% of patients were younger than 40 years old. The mean time from symptoms onset to the consultation was 20.1 ± 24.9 months (1-120 months). Most patients (42.2%) were admitted because they suffered dysuria. In 57.8% of patients, USD was diagnosed with complications. The most common site of stricture was at the bulbar urethra (72.7%). The length of the urethral stricture was smaller than 1 cm in 59.6% of patients, between 1 and 3 cm in 28.5% and between 3 and 5 cm in 7.7%. The stricture was longer than 5 cm in eight patients and was staged (multifocal) in nine patients. The etiology of urethral stricture was infectious in 63% of patients, traumatic in 13.7% and iatrogenic in 8.2%. The etiology was not identified in 14.9% of cases. The infectious etiology was urethritis in 259 cases and urogenital schistosomiasis in 12 cases. A study of the etiology according to stricture site showed that bulbar USD was infectious in 77.7% of cases and that all membranous USD cases were traumatic.

CONCLUSION

Male urethral stricture in Senegal is often a sequela of gonococcal urethritis and is frequently detected because of infectious complications such as gangrene of the genitalia or urinary tract infections. Its prevention in this geographical region thus requires fighting against sexually transmitted infections and treating appropriately and effectively all urethritis.