[Quality of life as an effectiveness criterion of surgical treatment for anterior urethral strictures].

RELEVANCE

Recent trends in the contemporary medicine have shown a growing request for the personalized choice of treatment and evaluation of its results. PROM-USS questionnaire has been designed for patients undergoing surgical correction of anterior urethral strictures to measure the treatment success using patient reported outcomes in numerical terms.

AIM

To test the effectiveness of different surgical modalities for anterior urethral strictures using patient reported outcomes.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Ninety men self-completed the PROM-USS questionnaire after surgical treatment of anterior urethral strictures. Mean and median follow-up was 6-132 months and 72 months, respectively. Measures included lower urinary tract symptom score, overall quality of life (QOL) and overall health, and patient satisfaction with treatment.

RESULTS

At the median follow-up of 72 months after surgery for anterior urethral stricture, the survey findings showed LUTS total score 7.4+/-1.2 and urination score on VAS scale 2.3+/-1.1. Sixty-five (72%) of the men believed that residual LUTS did not significantly affect their quality of life. Fifteen (17%) and 10 (11%) patients reported a slight and moderate/strong negative impact of urinary symptoms on their quality of life, respectively. The EQ-5D score of overall health state on VAS was 73+/-4.2 out of 100, the EQ-5D score of the overall quality of life was 0.79+/-0.2. Seventy-eight (86.7%) of 90 men were satisfied (32.2% very satisfied and 54.5% satisfied) with the surgery results, and 12 (13.3%) were dissatisfied. Reasons for dissatisfaction were the emergence of new problems (post-micturition dribbling) with an overall improvement of urinary symptoms (5) and the lack of improvement in urinary symptoms (7). Among patients treated with OIU, 79% were satisfied, which was significantly less than in groups of men who underwent anastomotic urethroplasty - 89% (p<0.05) and substitution urethroplasty using a buccal mucosal grafting - 95% (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION

The patient-reported outcomes showed that surgery for anterior urethral stricture is highly effective and characterized by a long term patient satisfaction and quality of life.