Length of urethra in the Indian adult male population

OBJECTIVE: The urethral length has not been measured in the Indian population. Even the international literature in this arena is very sparse. This paper is an attempt to develop a simple anatomical database for urethral length. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between January 2010 and April 2011, the urethral lengths of 422 adult male patients who required catheterization as part of regular treatment at our hospital, were recorded after obtaining consent from the patients and from the scientific and ethics review boards of the institution. Patients with history of prostatic or urethral abnormalities were excluded. The balloon of a sterile Foley's catheter was inflated using 10 cc of saline. The length from the junction of the balloon to the ‘Y’ junction of the Foley was measured. The catheter was then passed into the bladder and re–inflated to same volume. The penis was gently straightened and the length of the catheter outside the penis was measured till the premarked point at the ‘Y’ junction. Subtracting this from the original length gave the length of the urethra. RESULTS: The mean length of the urethra was 17.55 + 1.42 cm with a range between 14 and 22.5 cm. CONCLUSIONS: Literature in which the length of the normal adult male urethra is recorded for a significant sample size is very scarce. Our data adds to basic anatomic information of the male urethra specific to the Indian population. STATISTICAL METHODS: Descriptive statistical analysis was performed. The non-linear regression analysis was employed to find the normative values of urethral length according to age class.