STRICTURE, a term employed in sur gery to denote an unnatural contraction, either congenital or acquired, of a mu cous canal, such as the urethra, (esopha gus, or intestine. When, however, the affected part is not mentioned, and a person is stated to suffer from stricture, it is always the urethral canal that is referred to. Contraction of this canal may be either permanent or transitory; the former is due to a thickening of the walls of the urethra in consequence of organic deposits and is hence termed organic stricture; while the latter may be due either to local inflammation or congestion or to abnormal muscular ac tion; the first of these varieties may be termed inflammatory or congestive stric ture, and the second spasmodic stricture. The last named form seldom exists ex cept as a complication of the other kinds of stricture. There are two principal causes of organic stricture—the first being inflammation of the canal, and the second injury by violence. Inflammation is by far the most common cause, and gonorrhcea is the common agent by which it is excited. Not unfrequently stimu
lating injections thrown into the urethra with the view of checking the gonorrhoeal discharge excite an inflammatory action which gives rise to stricture.
The earlier symptoms of stricture are a slight urethral discharge and pain in the canal behind the seat of the stricture at the time of micturition. The stream of urine does not pass in its ordinary form, but is flattened or twisted; and as the disease advances it becomes smaller, and ultimately the fluid may only be dis charged in drops. The treatment of or ganic stricture is too purely surgical to be discussed in these pages.
Spasmodic stricture usually occurs as a complication of organic stricture or of inflammation of the mucous membrane, but may arise from an acrid condition of the urine, from the administration of cantharides, turpentine, etc., and from the voluntary retention of urine for too long a time. The treatment consists in the removal of the causes as far as pos sible and the hot bath.