Acquired male urethra diverticula: Report of seven cases. Bibliographic review

OBJECTIVES: To report our personal experience in a rare urethral pathology in relation with iatrogenic sequelae from surgical treatment of lower urinary tract pathologies. METHODS: We analyze the causes, type of presentation, and surgical treatment of seven cases of urethral diverticula, which account for 2.18% of the urethral procedures performed in our department, this latter representing 2.3% of a total of 11,845 surgical procedures in a period of 25 years. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: Male urethra diverticula go unnoticed because their initial symptoms are very similar to other lower urinary tract entities. But there is a definitive sign once the case is advanced: the appearance of a "lump" in the ventral side of the anterior urethra, the compression of which empties urinary content, sometimes fetid; or also the feeling of having a bag with stones if they host lithiasis. Surgical reconstructive treatment is very important to guarantee the absence of an obstacle distal to the cavity as well as to achieve a consistent ventral floor for the urethra to avoid recurrence, and that, as we will see, maybe obtained by various procedures. The attention to the original disease which indirectly had been the cause of the problem completes the therapeutic scheme for each case.