ABSTRACT

An urethral caruncle is a benign vascular tumor usually originating from the rear lip of the external urethral meatus and is usually observed in postmenopausal women. It is not included within the list of causes of bladder overdistension in women. We present a case of a urethral caruncle as a rare cause of acute urinary obstruction in a 71-year-old woman. The 71-year-old woman had occasional bleeding from a mass in the urethral meatus for 3 years. A reddish mass, measuring 3 cm in diameter, was noted at the posterior lip of the urethral meatus. The mass was diagnosed to be a urethral caruncle and was removed. Microscopically, the squamous epithelium, which covered the urethral caruncle, was found to be keratinized, with the proliferation of atypical cells with swollen nuclei in the entire mucosal layer. The patient could urinate better after the indwelling urethral catheter was taken out.