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Urethral Caruncle: Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

Definition

A urethral caruncle is a mucosal hyperplasia and prolapse of the female urethra, usually at 6 o'clock, with irritative symptoms. A circular urethral caruncle is also known as urethral prolapse.

Etiology of Urethral Caruncle

Urethral caruncles are most commonly found in postmenopausal women. Additional risk factors are pelvic floor dysfunction and micturition with subvesical obstruction (abdominal straining).

Signs and Symptoms

A urethral caruncle is a pedunculated hemorrhagic mucosal tumor, usually at 6 o'clock. Furthermore, irritative voiding symptoms, bleeding, or local pain may be present.

Treatment of Urethral Caruncles

Conservative treatment includes warm sitz baths, topical (vaginal) estrogen therapy, and topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Verma et al., 2020). If surgery is necessary, the clamping of the caruncle allows easy handling. A circular incision of the mucosa is done at the base of the caruncle. The basis of the caruncle is ligated, and the caruncle is resected. The mucosa is adapted with 4-0 sutures.

References

Park und Cho 2004 PARK, D. S. ; CHO, T. W.: Simple solution for urethral caruncle.
In: J Urol
172 (2004), Nr. 5 Pt 1, S. 1884–5

V. Verma and A. Pradhan, “Management of urethral caruncle - A systematic review of the current literature.,” Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol., vol. 248, pp. 5–8, 2020.

  Deutsche Version: Harnröhrenkarunkel