Objective To investigate the etiology and management of male urethral stricture at 8 medical centers in China during the period from 2004 to 2009 years,and to investigate whether there were any changes in etiology and management of urethral stricture with time change. Methods The database on 3455 male patients with urethral stricture who underwent treatment at 8 medical centers in China between January 2004 and December 2009 were prospectively collected.The databases were analyzed for possible cause of stricture and treatment techniques for urethral stricture,and for the changes in etiology and management with time change. Results There were 3455 operations for urethral stricture during the study period.The main causes of urethral strictures were traumas in 1833 patients (53.05％),among which pelvic fractures were in 1327 (38.41％) and perineal trauma in 506 (14.65％).The second cause was iatrogenic causes in 1181 patients (34.18％ ),among which transurethral operations or examinations were in 602 (17.42％),hypospadias surgery in 291 (8.42％) and urethral catheterization in 164 (4.75％ ).Less common causes were urethritis in 201 patients (5.82％),lichen sclerosus in 149 (4.31％),undefined in 91 (2.63％).The treatments of urethral strictures were endourological surgery including internal urethrotomy and dilation and open urethroplasty including end-to-end urethroplasty and the substitude urethroplasty etc.The ratios of using various techniques in total number of patients were obviously different by time.The most application technique for treatment of urethral stricture was endourological surgery ( 709 ) during 2004 -2006 and occupied 52.67％ in total number of patients.It was gradually decreased during 2007 -2009 (726) and only occupied 34.42％ (P ＜0.01 ).Open urethroplasty gradually increased during 2007 -2009 ( 1243,58.94％ ) compared with the first three years (563,41.83％ ) (P ＜ 0.01 ). Conclusions During the recent years there was an increase in the incidence of urethral stricture being trauma and iatrogenic causes.The main treatments of urethral strictures were endourological surgery and open urethroplasty.Endourological surgery was significantly decreased in total number of patients,while open urethroplasty were significantly increased during the late three years.