Comparison of the effectiveness of using bovine and human dry amniotic membrane based on mucosal integrity in urethral defect reconstruction: Experimental study on New Zealand rabbits

Background: Human and bovine dry amniotic membrane (AM) are used as an alternative therapy for the reconstruction of urethral defects. This study aimed to discover the difference of urethral mucosal integrity grading on rabbit’s urethral defect reconstruction between bovine and human AM. Methods: This was a pure experimental study among 36 white male rabbits divided into two groups, the treatment group I using urethral defect reconstructed with human AM and the treatment group II treated by urethral defect reconstructed with bovine AM. Results: There was no grade 0 (no epithelial formation) in both treatment groups. The most samples in both groups were in grade 2 which was the formation of 2-3 layers of epithelium. It was found 13 rabbits in treatment group I and 16 rabbits in treatment group II. In this study, the mucosal integrity, based on the number of epithelial membrane layers, did not differ significantly between two groups (p = 0.748). There was no significant difference of postoperative mucosal integrity grading on days 7, 14, and 28 postoperative in treatment groups I and II (p = 0.368) Conclusion: This study proved that both human and bovine dry AM can be used as an equally good, cheap, and efficient alternative in the reconstruction of urethral defects by inducing re-epithelialization in the urethra.