Clinical Profiles and Surgical Outcome of Hypospadias Repair at a Teaching Hospital in Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Hypospadias repair is one of the commonest and challenging surgery done in pediatric age groups. This study was conducted to assess clinical profiles and surgical outcomes of hypospadias repair. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of pediatric hypospadias repairs at St. Paul's hospital millennium medical college from September 2015 to August 2019 was conducted. RESULTS: A total of 277 patients with hypospadias repair were investigated. The mean age was 3.7+/- 3.5 years (Range, 0.5–14 years) and only one-third (98,35.4%%) of patients were operated on in the recommended age group (6–18 months). Anterior/distal hypospadias was the commonest (123,44.4%) variant identified. The majority (176,63.5%) had chordee and 105(37.9%) were severe forms. Tubularized incised plate repair was the major (164,59.2%) surgical technique employed followed by staged urethroplasty (61,22%). Post-operative complications occurred in 135(48.7%) patients and the commonest was urethrocutanous fistula (95,34.3%). No significant correlation was found between the occurrence of these complications and factors such as age at repair, the severity of hypospadias, presence of concomitant urogenital anomaly, type of procedure and duration of urinary diversion. However, the presence of severe chordee (AOR=3.09; 95%CI 1.21–7.54; p=0.013) was an independent factor found to be associated with postoperative complications on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Higher rate of complications following hypospadias repair was observed in our study. Our study also demonstrated no significant advantage of any repair technique in reducing operative complications. Extensive preoperative evaluation, proper operative plan and regular follow-up of such patients is paramount for a better outcome.