The Greenwald Roth Grip Urethral Suture Guide features a modified metal urethral sound with suture guiding grooves to facilitate exposire of the urethra and the precise placement of up to six sutures.
Although the primary use of this suture guide has been to allow the surgeon to direct sutures easily through the urethra into a nonyielding and movable internal guide, the device also has proven helpful for pushing out and exposing the stump of the urethra (in some cases, especially those with prior trans-urethral resection or those with a capacious urethra, the urethra slides over the end of the suture guide and could not be otherwise adequately pushed into view).
To improve on the ability of this guide to expose the urethra for more accurate suture placement, a means of internally fixing the urethra to the guide was devised: three semi-flexible metal retractable rods with nonslip surfaces were incorporated into the tip of the sound at the 12, 4 and 8 o'clock positions. Between each of these fixating rods are two deep suture grooves that guide the needles when they are placed through the urethra.
In addition for this improved suture guide (patent pending), deeper and more sharply cut shoulders of the grooves direct the needle to a more perpendicular position than on the original guide (part B of figure).
Having two grooves between each fixating rod all allows the surgeon to place six sutures without having to readjust the guide.