The role of Doppler ultrasound after penile replantation surgery: A case report and a systematic review of the literature

Penile amputation is an unconunon surgical emergency in the urology field. Surgical replantation is one of the treatment options. The role of Doppler ultrasound in the post-operative period has not been sufficiently evaluated. We faced an equivocal condition in the case of penile replantation. This study is a report of this patient and a systematic review evaluating the available literature on the role of Doppler ultrasonography in this rare clinical condition. This is a case report of a patient with self-mutilation of the penis due to a psychological disorder managed by microsurgical replantation of the penis in which the early post-operative Doppler ultrasound results showed no arterial blood flow but the final result was quite satisfying. We performed a systematic review then to fmd the universal experience with Doppler ultrasound in penile replantation. We found a total of 14 reports that used Doppler ultrasound after penile replantation. These reports are quite rare and heterogeneous in terms of evaluation time and fmdings. We here summarized the results of all these studies narratively. Our experience - like two other studies included in this systematic review - shows that relying merely on the results of early post-operative Doppler ultrasound especially when it shows inappropriate blood flow, is not sufficient since the clinical result achieved with routine followup can be quite satisfactory in long term.