Vascular autotransplantation for urethral replacement

We present two experimental models consisting of two groups of 16 dogs each in which we performed venous and arterial autotransplants in the urethra using the same surgical technique and the same sutures. As a substitute for the urethra, 4 to 5 cm of either superficial femoral artery or vein were used. Clinical, radiologic, and histologic evaluations were performed 15, 30, 90, and 180 days following the autotransplants. Total re-epithelialization of the venous graft, good micturitional flow, and suitable distension of the neourethra during micturition were observed. the arterial graft also underwent total re-epithelialization, but was very rigid, so that the caliber of the neourethra decreased over a period of several months, causing a number of complications after 6 months of follow-up. We compare this transplant technique with the generally used techniques for hypospadias repair such as the use of skin, bladder mucosa, tunica vaginalis, and ureter. The results were statistically analyzed.