News from the American Urological Association Annual Meeting 2018: Recurrent penile curvature after proximal hypospadias surgery

Dr. Snodgrass presented Hypospadias Specialty Center’s finding that recurrent penile curvature (chordee) was found in over 80% of patients with complications following hypospadias repair done somewhere else. Click here to read the abstract. We found that patients were more likely to have recurrent curvature when their surgeon repaired the chordee with a stitch, called a plication, to shorten the long side of the penis instead of how we repair chordee – by lengthening the short side. In some patients, the penile curvature was obvious just on an exam in the office. But in other patients, it was not seen until the surgery. In those with complications following proximal hypospadias repair, it is important that their surgeon checks an erection during the reoperation in order to avoid ongoing problems. But most importantly, we used this opportunity to remind surgeons to avoid complications in the first place by using the best available, most durable technique to straighten the penis during proximal hypospadias repair.