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Urethral functional inadequacy, most often in boys, can be a major challenge to patients and families. These authors describe five boys (age range, 10–14 years at the time of surgery) with severe posterior urethral disruption who received tissue-engineered urethras in Mexico.
The urethras were created by taking biopsies of the patients' urethras and growing the autologous cells on tubular scaffolds to a length of 4 to 6 cm. The urethras were surgically implanted between 2004 and 2007, and patients were followed until July of 2010 (median, 71 months). No intraoperative complications or urinary tract infections during follow-up were reported. At the end of the study period, all five patients had patent urethras without diverticula and normal u…