Is it serious if a polyp grows at the urethral opening?

Polyps at the urethral orifice are a common disease of the urethral orifice. Generally speaking, polyps at the urethral orifice are benign tumors, which are more likely to occur in the prostate area. Generally speaking, the chance of congenital disease is relatively high and can be found in infancy. Having polyps at the urethral orifice can easily lead to urinary retention or hematuria, which is very harmful to the health of the body.

Are urethral polyps serious?

Urethral polyps are benign tumors that occur in the urethra. It can be congenital or it can be urethral ectopy of prostate tissue. It often occurs at the bottom of the prostatic urethra and around the seminal vestibule. It can be found in infants and young children, as well as in young and middle-aged people. They may be solitary, elongated, pedunculated polyps or sessile, villous or papillary polyps. Generally small, with a diameter of less than 1.0 cm. Pedunculated polyps can block the urethra after being impacted by urine flow. There is urine excretion disorder and symptoms of urinary obstruction appear. Urethral polyps can bleed and cause hematuria and hematospermia.

Clinical symptoms

1. Hematuria can be painless macroscopic hematuria, usually presenting as primary hematuria.

2. Symptoms of lower urinary tract obstruction include difficulty urinating, thin urine flow, interrupted urine flow, and even urine retention and water accumulation in the upper urinary tract.

3. Hematospermia may occur in adult patients after ejaculation or drinking.

4. When urinary tract irritation symptoms lead to secondary infection, frequent urination, urgency, and pain when urinating may occur.

5. Cystourethrography during urination can show filling defects in the prostatic urethra.

6. Urethrascopy may reveal pedunculated or clustered polyps around the prostatic urethra and spermatophore.

7. Biopsy: The biopsy tissue was taken for pathological examination, which showed polyp-like changes. Its surface is mostly transitional epithelium, containing fibrovascular tissue. Or there are prostatic vesicles.

Differential Diagnosis

When urethral cancer causes painless gross hematuria due to bleeding from urethral polyps, or when the urethra is blocked and urine drainage is obstructed. Can be confused with urethral cancer. However, urethral cancer mostly occurs in middle-aged and older people; there is often a history of chronic urethral inflammation and stenosis; there are often urethral pain and bloody secretions from the urethral orifice: when palpating along the urethra or through rectal digital examination, local lumps and tenderness can be felt, and swollen and hardened inguinal lymph nodes can be touched; cytological examination of urethral secretions can reveal tumor cells; urethrography can show filling defects; during urethroscopic examination, tumors are often directly observed in the bulbar urethra, or in the cavernous body of the penis and the prostate: if a biopsy is taken, the difference can be clearly distinguished.

treat

1. Asymptomatic people do not need treatment. Most of them have good results with topical estrogen ointment. For those who do not heal for a long time, electrocautery, freezing, laser or surgical resection can be used.

2. Urethral polyps are granulomas caused by chronic urethritis that cannot be cured by long-term treatment and are benign lesions. If the polyp becomes larger and affects normal urination, it can be surgically removed.

3. Instrumental treatment: The current methods for endoscopic treatment of polyps include: high-frequency electrocoagulation and electroresection, high-frequency electrocautery, laser therapy, microwave therapy, injection removal, cryotherapy, etc.

Regarding follow-up examination after polypectomy, it is generally believed that for a single adenomatous polyp to be removed, a follow-up examination should be conducted once within the first year after surgery. If the examination is negative, a follow-up examination should be conducted every 3 years. If multiple adenomas are removed or adenomas are larger than 20 mm and accompanied by atypical hyperplasia, follow-up examinations should be conducted every 3 to 6 months. If the result is negative, the follow-up examination should be conducted once a year. If the result is negative for two consecutive times, the follow-up examination should be conducted once every 3 years. The follow-up examination period should be no less than 15 years.