failed hypospadias repair – Page 2 – Hypospadias Foundation

January 01 2024

Two stage oral mucosa graft repair in redo hypospadias

A 3 year 6 months male child presented to us in the OPD after two failed surgeries for hypospadias (done elsewhere). He had undergone a staged hypospadias repair at another centre in Mumbai and when he came to us, he had meatus at the proximal penile region probably due to complete dehiscence after stage 2 repair. The child was very apprehensive in the OPD because of a traumatic experience from previous surgery. On examination, the meatus was in the proximal penile region with very irregular unhealthy skin beyond that. At our centre, he was planned for cystoscopy, chordee assessment and most likely a staged oral mucosa graft hypospadias repair for best outcome.

On clinical examination, the meatus was at the proximal penile region with
unhealthy distal skin.

At the start of hypospadias surgery, chordee was assessed and there was no residual chordee noted. Deep degloving was done, all fibrotic tissues from the urethral bed were removed. Proximal urethra was mobilized. Chordee was reassessed and no chordee was noted. Skin was rearranged on the dorsal and ventral side. Raw area of 4x2cm was noted on the ventral aspect. Hence, we planned a stage 1 OMG repair i.e placement of oral mucosa graft.

Oral mucosa graft was harvested from the right cheek and placed on the ventral side from the glans till the meatus. Graft was quilted thoroughly on the corpora using 6-0 PDS.

Chordee was assessed, no residual chordee noted. Deep degloving done, all fibrotic tissues excised.

Skin rearranged on the dorsal and ventral side. 4cm raw area on the ventral side noted.

Oral mucosa graft harvested from the right cheek of size 4x2cm. Oral mucosa graft sutured on the ventral side from the glans till all around the meatus.

After stage 1, graft healing was good. Steroid massage was started 3 weeks after surgery and was continued for 5 months. Graft uptake was 100%. Second stage was planned after 6 months when the graft was soft and pliable. During the second stage hypospadias repair, chordee was reassessed and no chordee noted. Local anaesthesia – lignocaine with adrenaline was injected at the edges of the graft. Graft was incised at the margins and tubularized over a 7Fr Infant feeding tube (IFT). Second layer was closed using local tissues. Dartos flap was harvested from the left side and sutured over the urethroplasty using 6-0 PDS. Glans wings were widely mobilized and Glansplasty was done using 6-0 PDS. Glans epithelium was closed using 6-0 PDS. Skin was closed in 2 layers using 6-0 PDS and 6-0 vicryl rapide.

Graft was soft, 6 months after stage 1 repair. Chordee was assessed and no chordee was noted.

Graft was measured and 18mm width was used for urethroplasty. Graft was incised all around and tubularized and sutured using continuous inverting subcuticular sutures using 6-0 PDS.

Dartos flap sutured over the urethroplasty. Glansplasty and skin done hence completing Stage 2 OMG urethroplasty.

Dressing change was done after 7 days, and catheter was removed after 10 days. After catheter removal, the child passed urine in single straight stream with no pain or leak.

Post catheter removal, passing urine in single straight stream with no complications.

Two stage oral mucosa graft repair in redo hypospadias

Hypospadias is usually diagnosed after birth in the neonatal period by a pediatrician. Once diagnosed, referral to a pediatric urologist is necessary to plan surgery at the right age. As per the guidelines the best age for hypospadias surgery is between 9 to 18 months. Hypospadias Surgery is planned in single or two stages depending on the severity of hypospadias. After chordee correction, usually there is insufficient skin on the underside of the penis to reconstruct the urethra hence extra tissues either in the form of prepuce (in primary ones) and oral mucosa graft (in redo cases) are used for urethroplasty.

Prepucial skin can be mostly used only once for the hypospadias repair. If the first surgery is unsuccessful then we need to plan redo surgery by using skin from somewhere else due to lack of local prepucial skin. In these children, use of oral mucosa graft is an excellent option. The reason why oral mucosa can be used for urethral reconstruction is because it is hairless, thin and pliable similar to the natural lining of the urethra. Graft is harvested from the inside of the cheek or lip, fatty tissue from the graft is removed. The penis is prepared for placement of the graft and the graft is meticulously sutured on the corporal bed. The graft incorporates into the urethral bed and becomes soft in 6-8 months. Local Steroid massage is necessary to make the graft soft. Once it is as soft as lip it can be tubularized to form the neourethra. The beauty of oral graft is such that there is less risk of fistula formation, minimal donor site scarring and has good cosmetic outcomes. However, it requires specialized skill and experience to perform oral mucosa graft in hypospadias and there is a small percentage of adults or children who may develop graft rejection or failure. In these children or adults, we need to replace the graft completely by a new graft.

The above-mentioned case is of a boy who presented to us after two failed hypospadias surgeries in the past. The local prepucial skin was unhealthy, hence we opted for oral mucosa graft. The final cosmetic result in this boy was excellent and he was able to pass urine in single straight stream with no complications.

At Hypospadias Foundation in Navi Mumbai, after hypospadias repair including oral mucosa inlay graft urethroplasty, children are encouraged to walk, play, and do some activities at home comfortably. We do not advice bed rest. Tying the legs and restricting children from doing activities or walking is disturbing for the child. Encouraging them to do activities can act as a distraction and take their mind off from the discomfort and promote healing. With our vast experience in hypospadias, we would recommend that children be allowed to do some activities in the post operative period. Play can be powerful tool for children to express their emotions and process surgical fear.

About Hypospadias foundation

Hypospadias foundation is an organization dedicated for children and adults with hypospadias and is rated as the best hospital for hypospadias repair in India. It was founded in 2008 by Dr A K Singal and is located in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. Hypospadias foundation offers best results for surgical repair for primary and failed hypospadias. We at hypospadias foundation believe in providing personalized care and psychosocial support to families of children and adults with hypospadias. The foundation also advocates improved access of care for people with hypospadias around the world.

Dr A K Singal is a well renowned hypospadias surgeon and regarded as the best hypospadias surgeon in India and in the world. His vision for hypospadias has helped him achieve excellent outcomes in adults and children with hypospadias. He has dedicated his life in treating children and adults with hypospadias with his innovative surgical techniques.

Dr Ashwitha Shenoy is an expert pediatric surgeon with special interest in pediatric urology and hypospadias. She holds a particular interest in hypospadias and along with Dr Singal performs advanced surgical techniques for both primary and complex hypospadias cases in children and adults.

Contact us:

For appointment kindly contact us at the contact details given below.

MITR hospital & Hypospadias Foundation, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, India – Tue/Saturday 4:00pm-6:00pm, Call for appointments: +91-9324180553. Or email us at hypospadiasfoundationindia@gmail.com

or pls call up our clinic for an appointment – +91-9324180553

April 04 2015

Successful result in a failed hypospadias repair: Boy from Gandhinagar (Gujarat) visits Hypospadias Foundation for a follow-up 5 years after surgery

Hypospadias remains the most common urological abnormality affecting more than 1 lakh kids in India alone (based on incidence of 1/150 in newborn boys). Leaving aside very minor hypospadias without chordee- almost 70-80% of these require hypospadias treatment in form of repair surgery in early childhood.

For a child with Hypospadias, the first surgery is always the best surgery but still there can be complications and failure even in expert hands though complications are much less if operated by a surgeon or a centre where there is a focused practice in treating children with hypospadias. Literature and experts suggest that if a hypospadias surgeon is doing more than 50 hypospadias repairs in a year, then his results will be better and more predictable as compared to a general pediatric surgeon or a urologist who does only 10-20 hypospadias repairs in a year. Once a hypospadias surgery fails, then the next surgeries become more difficult and result more unpredictable. The failure rate of hypospadias surgeries vary from 5% to 50% depending on the type and severity of hypospadias in general centres and less than 10% in centres where hypospadias surgeries are done by expert hypospadias surgeons on a day to day basis.

Case details

Master A.P. was born with a distal penile hypospadias and underwent first surgery in Ahmedabad at the age of 6 years. Unfortunately, the surgery failed and he started passing urine from the same place on the underside of penis- a fistula. The new urinary passage through the head of the penis got tight and closed off. The surgeon tried to open it many times by catheter insertion but it failed. Coupled with failed hypospadias, the child also had an unsatisfactory cosmetic appearance in form of bunching of skin on underside of penis. With this situation they contacted Dr A.K.Singal, Pediatric urologist and expert Hypospadias surgeon at Hypospadias foundation in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai when the boy was ten years of age. After examining and confirming that the whole urinary pipe will have to be remade from distal penile region to the tip of penis (glans), Dr Singal advised a Onlay island flap repair for which the flap would be raised from the nearby bunched up skin. This repair is technically challenging because of previous failed hypospadias surgery but this was the only chance for the boy to have a single stage repair. The surgery for failed hypospadias was finished in 2 hours and A.P. was ready for discharge the next day but since they had travelled all the way from Gujarat, they decided to stay for 7-8 days in Navi Mumbai. The catheter was removed on day7 and he passed urine well from the tip. For the first one month after surgery, there were some chances of new opening getting tight, hence we taught the boy to insert a small catheter just 1cm into the new opening with an antibiotic ointment. The penis healed well in next 3 months and he has remained free of all symptoms now for last 5 years. At 15 years of age and after his 10^th standard exams, A.P visited us and had a big smile on his face. He is looking forward to higher education and he shared with us his dreams and further education goals. We plan to see him again one last time at 18 years of age. His penis growth and his functional & cosmetic outcome has been excellent so far.

Dr A.K.Singal with the patient

Letter of thanks from the father:

Dear Dr Singal,

My son A.P was operated first at Ahmedabad. The hypospadias problem was not solved and it actually worsened and we were very tense my son’s future life. While searching through internet I came to know about you and your colleague doctors.

From your past surgeries and mastery about Hypospadia surgeries we decided and contacted you before surgery. At Mitr hospital, from the first meeting with you, we were confident about our son’s second Hypospadias surgery and we decided to do it only with you.

At Mitr Hospital, we experienced very good pre and after surgery treatment from Doctors and staff also, very good and polite staff. At Gujarat we don’t have such experienced and professional hospital staff. I think this is also very important besides doctors. I feel that if the doctors are not confident they must not try and go ahead for these type of surgeries because once it is fails, the situation of patient and his family is unbearable. It creates psychological problems also and these can be very stressful to handle. Thanks to your team, my son is doing well now.

Regards

M.P., Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

About Failed Hypospadias repair:

When the hypospadias surgery fails, it is a moment of distress and lot of anguish for the parents. Even the doctors feel terrible because they know that even a hypospadias surgery which has been done well doesn’t mean that everything will heal also well. There are many variable factors which affect healing and hence, complications of hypospadias surgery happen sometimes even in best of hypospadias surgeon’s hands. The only difference being that when an expert hypospadias surgeon does the surgery, the chances of complications decreases drastically. And even if the complications happen, they can be managed well without any panic or long lasting impact.

The complications which may need second surgery are: urethral fistula, tight urethra (stenosis or urethral stricture), residual curvature (chordee), dehiscence (complete breakdown or partial breakdown), diverticulum, penile torsion or an unsatisfactory cosmetic outcome. Once it is ascertained that a second surgery is indeed needed for hypospadias, it is important to wait for 5-6 months before planning the next surgery.

About Dr A.K.Singal

Dr A.K.Singal is a well known Pediatric Urologist and one of the best hypospadias surgeons in India. Every year under his care in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, more than 150 children undergo hypospadias treatment. More than 50 of these are children who have failed hypospadias surgery done elsewhere. With his deep understanding and experience, Dr Singal and his team are able to offer care and cure to these children. He can be contacted at hypospadiasfoundationindia@gmail.com or you can call his Assistant Doctor – Dr Rajkumar at 98212161448 if you wish to take a second opinion for a failed hypospadias surgery. Else you can fill up this contact form:

Contact Dr A.K.Singal

November 11 2014

Good results of hypospadias repair surgery in adults even after previous failed repairs

Besides 100,000 kids born in India every year with hypospadias, there are an estimated 5-10 lakh adults living with either unoperated hypospadias or failed hypospadias having complications of Hypospadias surgery. These can be minor issues such as urethral fistula, chordee or suboptimal cosmetic results but a significant number may have major issues such as completely failed hypospadias, urethral diverticulum, hairy urethra, urethra stricture etc. Unable to come to terms with penile deformity, they do not get any hope or assurances from adult urologists or plastic surgeons as this may not be the area of primary interest or dedication for them.

Mr Rajveer Singh, 30 years old man, had a midpenile hypospadias with chordee and was operated by a plastic surgeon in Hissar Haryana 2 years back. After surgery, there was a breakdown of hypospadias repair and he was still passing urine from underside of penis. He was still having a downward curvature of penis (chordee) even after this surgery. Also he had seen hair growing out of urinary opening over last few months. He was very worried as he wanted to get married, hence he wrote to us asking for help. We wrote back asking for detailed pictures on email which would help us in understanding his clinical condition and hypospadias deformity. Finally, we called him to see us at Hypospadias Foundation in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. He took a flight from Delhi to Mumbai and landed up in my Hypospadias clinic on a Monday evening. On examination, he had a urinary opening much below the head of penis in midpenile region and also a couple of holes (urethral fistula) from where he was leaking urine. More importantly his penis still looked bent due to uncorrected chordee. Lastly the cosmetic outcome was really bad with tags of skin here and there and we could see hair coming out of his urethra due to previous failed improper hypospadias surgery. This results when an undertrained hypospadias surgeon uses hairy penile skin for urethral reconstruction. We counselled Rajveer regarding the surgical plan the first step of which would be excision of all unhealthy skin tissue on underside of penis, chordee correction (straightening of penis) and then decide for the type of hypospadias repair in operation theatre. This would be either a single stage repair using a local flap from hairless penile skin or a staged repair using a buccal mucosa graft. In staged buccal mucosa graft – we first excise all unhealthy tissue and scars of failed hypospadias repair, then take a thin lining from inside of lower lip or cheek and then place it as a graft on underside of penis. Once this graft gains local blood supply from penis tissue, we roll it into a urethral tube typically after 6 months of first stage. We always keep buccal graft as the last option in failed hypospadias as that essentially means multiple surgeries. Hence, we attempt to do a single stage flap repair whenever feasible even in failed hypospadias and hence we shared this intent with Rajveer.

Rajveer was taken up for surgery the next day under spinal anesthesia and first a cystoscopy was done. It showed normal urethra beyond midpenile region and unhealthy scarred hairy urethra with fistulae in the distal penile region. We excised all the unhealthy tissues and then checked for chordee. There was still 30 degrees bend in penis which needed correction by a 12 O’clock non-absorbable stitch on the top side of penis. On rechecking with artificial erection, there was no chordee now. After chordee repair was satisfactory, we analysed the penile skin on the right side of penis. We could see an island of hairless skin which was possibly remnant of foreskin (prepuce). We designed a long flap from this with very good blood supply from the underlying dartos tissue. This flap was used in an onlay fashion to repair hypospadias in a single stage. Finally head of the penis (glans) was also repaired and a catheter was placed to drain urine till the whole repair healed. Rajveer went back to his home town in Haryana after 3 days of surgery and then we arranged for one of my surgeon colleagues in Hissar (Dr Vivek Gupta) to help with post hypospadias surgery care. The catheter was removed on day 14 since it was a major hypospadias reconstruction. Rajveer passed urine well and but the full healing of the penis took about 4 weeks. The final cosmetic result was excellent when he sent the pictures via email. He visited us recently almost 3 months after surgery, the penis looked well healed and he is passing urine well from the tip in a good stream. His erections are straight and he is now looking forward to get married. The only question is whether he will invite me for his wedding or not and if he invites, how will he introduce me.

When such complex failed cases do well after hypospadias treatment at Hypospadias foundation, it makes us very happy. We feel our goal of starting the foundation in Nov 2008 has been fulfilled. Last six years have been a long and exciting journey but is has been a very challenging time. When we started we never knew the burden of problem was so high. Along the way we have been privileged to be a part of lives of more than 600 kids and adults with Hypospadias from all over India and some countries abroad. Almost 25% of those receiving treatment at Hypospadias Foundation, have been patients with failed hypospadias who received surgery elsewhere. Though initially we started only with management of hypospadias in children but we realized that there is huge gap when it comes to treatment of hypospadias in adults. Along with Dr Manish Dubey, my close friend who is an adult urologist we are able to offer good care and success rates in adults and failed hypospadias.

In last three years, Hypospadias Foundation has welcomed many patients from many other states and countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Greece, Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE-Dubai, Oman, Great Britain (UK), USA, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Congo, Zambia and this number continues to grow attesting to our devotion to the field of Hypospadias. Within India, kids and their families have travelled for treatment of hypospadias from Assam, Kolkata, Orissa (Puri, Bhubhaneshwar), Ranchi, Chattisgarh (Raipur, Katni), Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Gandhinagar), MP (Indore, Bhopal), Himachal, Delhi, Haryana (Hissar, Rohtak, Panipat), Rajasthan (Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur), Maharashtra (Jalgaon, Pune, Aurangabad, Nasik, Nagpur, Parbhani, Dhule, Solapur, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Ratnagiri), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Allahabad, Meerut), Goa, Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad, Belgaum, Guntur), Uttarakhans (Dehradun), Jammu, Kerala (Cochin), Tamilnadu (Chennai, Salem, Coimbatore) and Punjab (Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Patiala).

About the author:

Dr A.K.Singal is a Pediatric Urologist and Hypospadiologist practicing in western india in area of Navi Mumbai and Thane. He is counted as one of the best hypospadias expert surgeons in the world and every year manages more than 200 kids and adults with hypospadias. He is available at the following clinics :

Clinics and Appointments for Dr Singal

To send an enquiry to Dr Singal’s team please fill up this form: Contact Dr A.K.Singal

Watch video of Single stage repair surgery of severe hypospadias by Dr A.K.Singal

Watch video of repair of glanular hypospadias with chordee by Dr A.K.Singal

Watch video of Distal penile hypospadias repair surgery by Dr A.K.Singal

Contact Form for Hypospadias Foundation

Please fill all clinical details and upload pictures and clinical summaries (if available)

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Tag Archives: failed hypospadias repair

Two stage oral mucosa graft repair in redo hypospadias

About Hypospadias foundation

Contact Form for Hypospadias Foundation