Lucknow: Doctors at the city’s Apollomedics Hospital reported treatment of urethral stricture using lab-grown cells, offering a minimally invasive alternative to conventional surgery for selected patients.Sharing details on Thursday, a team led by Dr Mayank Mohan Agrawal, Dr Ved Bhaskar and Dr Shailendra Gupta said that they treated a 30-year-old Lucknow resident who had a three-centimetre-long bulbar urethral stricture, a narrowing that can obstruct the flow of urine.Conventionally, such patients may undergo urethroplasty using a graft taken from the inside of the cheek.The procedure involves removing a larger section of oral tissue and can cause considerable discomfort while eating and drinking during recovery.Endoscopic treatment, another option, carries a higher risk of recurrence and may require patients to periodically self-catheterise.In the new procedure, doctors removed a tiny 10mm by 5mm tissue sample from the patient’s cheek. The sample was sent to a specialised laboratory in Pune, where it was expanded over two weeks into nearly 50 lakh living cells.The cells, whose lifespan is about 72 hours after preparation, were transported to Lucknow under a maintained cold chain.Doctors then combined them with liquid thrombin and delivered the mixture endoscopically to the treated area after making an incision over the stricture to create a surface for the cells to attach and promote tissue healing.Dr Mayank Mohan Agrawal, director and head, Urology and Kidney Transplant, said the procedure took around 15-20 minutes and did not require a major incision in the mouth or lower body.The urinary catheter could be removed after about a week, compared with two to three weeks after conventional open surgery. The patient was discharged the following day.Dr Ved Bhaskar, associate director, Urology, said the technique has a reported success rate of 70-80% and could be particularly useful for elderly patients and those with multiple health conditions.
