Cryosurgery versus dilation and massage for the treatment of recurrent urethral syndrome.

One year after the initiation of a prospective, randomized, crossover trial comparing dilation and massage to urethral cryosurgery utilizing a specially designed urethral cryoprobe, our results show that cryosurgery was more effective in the treatment of recurrent urethral syndrome in women. Ninety-one percent of patients first treated with cryosurgery were successful in achieving relief from their symptoms whereas only 33% of the women initially treated with dilation and massage were successful (P = .005). In addition, cryosurgery was more successful in treating women when they crossed over after failing the other therapy (75% vs. 0%). In total, 21 of 24 patients (87.6%) were treated successfully with one of the two modalities. Nineteen of the 22 patients (86.4%) in this select group treated with cryosurgery during the trial were successful, whereas only 5 of 15 (33.3%) treated with dilation and massage were successful (P = .001).