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Location of urethral arteries by colour Doppler ultrasound.

Vaidyanathan S, Hughes PL, Singh G, Soni BM, Watt JW, Darroch J, Oo T

Regional Spinal Injuries Centre, District General Hospital, Southport, Merseyside, UK.

STUDY DESIGN: A case report. SETTING: Regional Spinal Injuries Centre, Southport, UK. CASE REPORT: A 56-year-old male with complete paraplegia at T-4 underwent visual internal urethrotomy of bulbous urethral stricture with a cold knife at 12 o'clock position. There was brisk arterial bleeding. Despite receiving antibiotics, this patient developed hypotension, tachycardia and tachypnoea. He was resuscitated and mechanical ventilation was instituted. After he recovered from this life-threatening episode of urinary tract-related sepsis, colour Doppler ultrasound imaging of bulbous urethra was performed to locate urethral arteries. In the bulbous urethra, single urethral artery was seen at 12 o'clock position. CONCLUSION: Since the sites of urethral arteries vary among patients, it is advisable to assess individually the location of urethral arteries preoperatively and plan the site of incision accordingly. Persons with injury to cervical or upper dorsal spinal cord have decreased cardiac and respiratory reserve as well as alteration in immune function. Therefore, all possible measures should be taken to prevent acute blood loss and bacteraemia in this group of patients.

Published 3 February 2005 in Spinal Cord, 43(2): 130-2.
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