Tissue engineering of the urethra: where are we in 2019?

Tissue engineering of autologous tissue for urethroplasty is expensive. It is unnecessary for the majority of cases, but could be potentially useful for very lengthy strictures, for instance, relating to lichen sclerosis. Whilst tissue-engineered oral mucosa has been successfully used, a great deal more work would be necessary to develop an appropriate matrix. Another study has looked at a larger series using an alternative tissue-engineered substitute, but the results have been very disappointing. At present, it has to be concluded that there is no effective and validated tissue engineering solution for the management of urethral stricture disease.