Abstract
Urethral caruncle is a benign fleshy outgrowth at the urethral meatus that occurs
mainly at posterior lip of urethra and is most commonly seen in postmenopausal women.
They are typically asymptomatic and are mostly reported as incidental findings during
pelvic examination. When symptomatic, they commonly present with bleeding, haematuria,
pain, dysuria or a lump. Despite being a recognised condition in medicine for more
than two centuries, urethral caruncle is still a very poorly understood condition
and the current literature is largely deficient to guide the general practitioners
and gynaecologists in the appropriate management of the condition. The aim of the
paper is to systematically review the current literature on the management options
available for urethral caruncle and highlight the need for high quality research to
develop better management strategies for this condition. We searched the following
electronic databases from 1946 until January 2019: MEDLINE, EMBASE, COCHRANE and WEB
OF SCIENCE. The search identified a total of 41 articles on the treatment of the condition
in pre- and postmenopausal women, out of which only eight studies were relevant for
our review. Most of these studies were retrospective case series or small cohort studies,
mainly on the surgical treatment of the lesion. We found no systematic studies in
the current literature on the conservative management of urethral caruncles. The most
common method of surgical treatment encountered in these studies was simple excision.
In conclusion, the current literature is largely deficient to guide us in the appropriate
management of this common condition and there is need for more robust studies to develop
evidence based management of this distressing condition that can guide the general
practitioners and gynaecologists.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 06, 2020
Accepted:
March 5,
2020
Received in revised form:
February 25,
2020
Received:
May 8,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
