Abstract:

Background: Urethral stricture refers to fixed anatomic narrowing of the urethra so that the lumen will not accommodate instrumentation without disruption of the urethral mucosal lining (1). It is actually among the top causes of morbidity and hospital admission in the world being more common among males. In Africa there is a high prevalence of urethral stricture with high rate of morbidity and hospital admissions Faso showed the prevalence to be 4.2% (2). In Southern Africa, a study of 558 men found that 14.3% of them had Urethral stricture as a cause of urinary retention. Etiology for urethral stricture, in Africa it has been found that in rural and suburban centers urethritis was reported as the leading cause (3) and the urban centers the predominant etiology to be due to trauma (4), which is now the fastest growing etiology affecting a huge number of patients.

Methodology: This was a prospective cross-sectional study, which was conducted on July to August 2024 which recruited male patients attending clinic or admitted at BMC urology wards. The sample size was 188 involving Adult male patients who are attending outpatient clinics at Bugando Medical Centre.

Results: A total of 188 participants were recruited with predominant age of >45 years with majority being educated 50.1% and most were from the outpatient clinic 79.8%. The prevalence of Urethral stricture was 38.3% of patients with Lower Urinary Tract symptoms with trauma as the main implicated etiology carrying 40.75% of the patients huge of these being due to Previous TURP procedures 36.36%.

Conclusion: Urethral stricture is the second most common cause of morbidity in patients attending urology clinic at BMC next to Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia with trauma as the main implicated etiology affecting mainly the elder individuals who are subjected to TURP due to risks of BPH