History of surgical correction of Hypospadias

The term hypospadias is first time met in the papers of Galen. The word is derived from the Greek words hypo, meaning under and spadon, meaning fissure. The first description of hypospadias, definition of pathology and suggestions for treatment were gave by Helidorus and Antyllus in the first century. They suggested partial resection of glans in order to correct the position of meatus. In XVI century, Amatus Lucitanius created a canal from the proximal ectopic meatus to the distal end of the penil shaft in penoscrotal hypospadias, using a silver cannula. The base of almost all contemporrary surgical techniques were formed in XVIII century, or even earlier. Pare's chordectomy, Phisik's dorsal plication antd Pancoast's plastics of tunica albuginea, in original form or modified, are the most frequently used methods of orthoplasty today. Bouisson's (1861.) meatal based flap technique is the base of the large group of "flip-flap" urethroplasties nowadays. The large group of techniques with preservation od urethral plate was derived from the Thiersch-Duplay principle (1897, 1974.) The use of vascularised island flap was introduced by Van Hook (1896) in this fruitful period. At the end of this century free grafts have came into the use (Nove-Josserand 1897). The twentieth century mostly brings modifications of the principles presented previously. There are more than 250 surgical tehniques and their modifications described by now. Although this leads toward ideal functional and cosmetic result of repair, one must notice the importance of ideas of the great surgeons from the past.