Urethrostomy

Urethrostomy is a surgical procedure that creates a permanent new opening in the urethra, most often to give urine a way to bypass an obstruction that blocks normal urination. It is performed most commonly in male cats, where the new opening is made in the perineum, because the male cat urethra is unusually narrow and prone to becoming blocked, though the technique has also been used historically in livestock such as castrated young cattle, sheep and goats that develop urinary stone obstructions. The modern perineal urethrostomy used in cats was first developed in 1962, published in 1963, and refined through further modifications into the 1970s.