Hypospadias repair: the influence of postoperative care and a patient factor on surgical morbidity.

More than 200 surgical techniques have been advocated for hypospadias repair and perfection is still eluding us. The purpose of this paper is not to comment on a surgical technique, but to highlight the importance of postoperative care on the eventual surgical outcome. Two hundred six children undergoing primary hypospadias surgery from 1984 to 1994 at Mount Vernon Hospital were analyzed. The mean age of surgery was 3.8 years (range, 8 months-17 years) and our mean follow-up was 6.1 years. Various surgical techniques were used. During 1989, we changed our postoperative regime and patients were mobilized early (within 48 hours) compared to the strict-bed rest-till-catheter-out regime before 1988. This significantly reduced our fistula rate from 22% to 9.8% (chi squared p = 0.0016). Patient factors such as pulling on the catheter, urinary obstruction/blocked catheter, erections, straining due to constipation, and interference with dressings influence surgical outcome negatively. One of these patient factors was documented in all of our 33 patients who developed fistulas. In 6 patients (3.5%), a patient factor was present without any complication. This is highly significant statistically (chi squared p < 0.0001). The type of urinary diversion, period of urinary diversion, type of dressing, catheter size, and anesthetic regime did not influence outcome significantly.