RECONSTRUCTIVE UROLOGY

Vaginal and penile reconstruction
Sievert KD
Department of Urology, University of Munster, Munster, Germany
Curr Opin Urol. 2003; 13: 489-94

• Purpose of Review: Reconstructive surgery for patients with genital abnormalities or for patients who require reconstructive efforts is challenging. This review highlights those articles, which are outstanding among all those important papers, which have been published during the last year (2002-2003).
• Recent Findings: A greater understanding of embryonal development improves the success of reconstructive surgery. Other factors, such as the patient’s sex, influence the surgical technique used and the degree of invasiveness or complexity. In the adult the pressure to shorten hospital stays has played a big part in the continual modification and enhancement of surgical techniques. In addition to modified techniques, new off-the-shelf materials are introduced to the clinic, which seem to have the potential to improve the surgical outcome and shorten hospital stays.
• Summary: With the continued successful basic anatomy and basic research, reconstructive surgery brings higher success rates. Long-term results are still required to validate the reliability of these new surgical techniques and materials.
  
  
• Editorial Comment
  This paper nicely outlines the current status of reconstruction of male and female genitalia for a successful reconstruction in genital abnormalities a greater understanding of the embryonal development is advantages. Flap technology and prefabrication are the currently preferred methods for surgical success in transsexual patients. However, here again we are awaiting the clinical application of tissue-engineered segments for both the penile autologous prosthesis and vaginal cavity.

Dr. Arnulf Stenzl
Professor and Chairman of Urology
Eberhard-Karls-University Tuebingen
Tuebingen, Germany