Like every other surgery, hypospadias correction surgery has its own risks, complications and failures. Inspite of the best intentions and efforts of the parents and the treating hypospadias surgeon, still the results may be sub-optimal after the first surgery. Though at the end of hypospadias surgery in OT it may seem that the surgery has gone very well, sometimes there may be minor complications which necessitate a second surgery for hypospadias in some children. The rate of second surgery for a complication or failure of first hypospadias surgery decrease with the expertise and experience of the hypospadias surgeon but it is never zero and that is an important thing for the parents and families to understand.

When the first surgery for hypospadias fails, parents get very disturbed and start looking for more information on why it happened and the solutions and second opinion for hypospadias to help fix the problem. Most of the times, the primary surgeon may be the best person to solve the problem but sometimes the complication may be severe and in such cases the patient should be referred to a centre of excellence in hypospadias surgery.

While minor problems like fistula or cosmetic issues can be treated easily with as second minor surgery- major complications of hypospadias surgery such as urethral breakdown, dehiscence, urethral diverticulum or stricture may require more complicated or even a staged repair with grafts. Hence, the dictum- that first surgery for hypospadias is the best surgery- further surgery if the first one fails is always more difficult and challenging.

At Hypospadias Foundation, we regularly receive kids and adults from all over India and other countries who have had a failed hypospadias surgery elsewhere. Families request for a second opinion for the hypospadias treatment and we advise them comprehensively. Some of these cases really benefit from the specialist care offered by a dedicated hypospadias team.

Case Story

Master A.G., a 3 years old boy, resident of Nagpur, underwent a surgery for a proximal penile hypospadias surgery at a hospital in Vellore. Unfortunately, the healing was not optimal and the whole repair had a breakdown. After 6 months of previous surgery, the family wrote to us and visited us at our centre in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. On examination, the child has proximal penile meatus with mild chordee. There was a remnant of foreskin (prepuce) on the underside of penis. There was no foreskin left on the topside of penis. We explained to the parents that this may require a two stage repair but we will try out best to make a flap from the residual foreskin and do the surgery in one stage.

Finally after pre-surgery tests and fitness assessments, we took the child for redo-hypospadias surgery. We could make a nice onlay flap out of the foreskin remnant by carefully dissecting the blood supply and preserving the supply to this flap skin. The flap was used to make the new urethra in one stage as it can be seen in the video below.  The surgery took about 3 hours and the child was allowed feeds four hours after surgery. The dressing was removed after 7 days and catheter after 10 days. The hypospadias site healed very well and the child was examined again after 1 month. He was passing urine well in a single stream from the tip of penis. Now, 6 months after hypospadias repair, A.G. continues to do well and his parents are very happy and we are also overjoyed to achieve a good result in this challenging failed hypospadias case. The detailed hypospadias surgery video can be watched by clicking below. Besides the story mentioned here, the video below shows another child story from Raipur, Chattisgarh where the first surgery resulted in a penile torsion and a large fistula. The child underwent a successful single stage surgery at Hypospadias Foundation:

Watch Video of Failed Hypospadias surgery by Dr A.K.Singal