Acute postoperative complications of hypospadias repair

PURPOSE: Complications in hypospadias surgery are higher than other reconstructive procedures. The incidence of complications can be reduced if proper preventive measures are taken. The review aims to highlight incidences, causes, and preventive measures of acute complications of hypospadias repair. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Literature reports were reviewed in Pubmed by giving the key word acute complications of hypospadias repair, wound infection, wound dehiscence, flap necrosis, edema, penile torsion, urethral fistula, bleeding and hematoma and urethral stents problems. Summaries of all articles were reviewed with full text of relevant article and results were analyzed. RESULTS: Besides mentioning the complications of hypospadias repair in individual articles on the subject, we did not come across any separate article on this subject in the published English literature. Fistula is the commonest complication followed by edema and penile torsion. CONCLUSIONS: Most acute complications can be prevented with adherence to principles of plastic and microsurgery, meticulous preoperative planning, and judicious postoperative care. Deviation from these principles may lead to disaster and even failure of the repair. The aim in hypospadias surgery should be following these principles and bring down the complication rates < 5% in distal hypospadias and < 10% in proximal hypospadias.