Abstract
ABSTRACT
Objectives:
We developed a United States-Vietnam Global Health International partnership where the focus was to provide a Vietnamese urologist observational (in the United States) and hands-on (in Vietnam) training in urethral stricture evaluation, decision-making, and surgery along with urethroplasty-specific instruments. The goal was for that urologist to become specialized and an expert in urethroplasty. The objective is to evaluate the anastomotic urethroplasty outcomes after the initiation of this ongoing collaboration.
Materials and Methods:
We established an international partnership between a Vietnamese urologist at a University teaching hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, seeking training and expertise in urethroplasty, and an American University-based Reconstructive Urology Fellowship Program. In addition to onsite observational training of the Vietnamese urologist at the American program, hands-on training was provided during intensive two-week surgical workshops held in Vietnam. All surgical instruments and retractors used in the American institution were donated to the Vietnamese hospital. We then reviewed prospectively gathered data between 2015 and 2020 using an established urethroplasty database to determine the success rate of anastomotic urethroplasty in bulbar and pelvic fracture urethral injury (PFUI) strictures, as determined by cystoscopy at least four months after surgery.
Results:
A total of 198 urethroplasties were performed during the study period, including 97 bulbar cases and 101 posterior PFUI cases. Forty of the 97 bulbar urethroplasty patients completed cystoscopy at four months with a success rate of 87.5%. Of the 101 PFUI cases, including initial and revision surgery, 74 returned for cystoscopy with a 94.6% success rate.
Conclusion:
Through onsite observational training at a Reconstructive Urology Fellowship Program, donation of appropriate reusable surgical instruments, and hands-on training during international surgical workshops, success rates by the first Vietnamese urologist to receive formal training were similar to published success rates at urethroplasty centers of excellence.