Home / Treatments / Phimosis/Circumcision
The skin over the tip of penis normally folds on itself as a sleeve and attaches to the head of penis. This extra skin is called foreskin. In newborn babies the under surface of the foreskin is fused to the head of penis. Because of this in 95% of newborn babies the foreskin can not be pulled back. This is referred to as ‘physiological phimosis’ or ‘non retractile foreskin’.
In a 2 year old boy it partly opens out like a flower when pulled back. However as they gets older it separates slowly; by 5 years of age, 50% of boys have a foreskin that can be pulled back; and by 15 years almost 90% have normal adult pattern.
Up to 5 years of age there is a variable proportion of foreskin adherence to the penis. Sometimes there can be accumulation of white discharge called ‘smegma’ giving the appearance of ‘white pearls’ under the skin. Some times the foreskin balloons as the boy passes urine but there is no other problem. These are entirely within the normal limit and should not be a cause of concern.
If parents resort to the practice of retraction exercises, they might overdo and can cause soreness and bleeding. Also excessive retraction with damage heals with scarring leading to real phimosis. Boys older than 7 years of age can attempt self retraction at bath. However it is essential to put it back after retraction, as skin left retracted can result in swelling called ‘paraphimosis’.
In a boy with phimosis, surgery is required if the following problems are encountered:
Circumcision is one of the oldest operations known to mankind. It basically involves removing the excess skin at the tip of the penis. There are several reasons for doing circumcision:
Circumcision in children is usually done under general anesthesia, as a day case procedure. The operation lasts for around 30 minutes. The stitches are dissolvable and need not require removal. There can be a variable degree of swelling and the penis may look ugly for 2 weeks. As the head of penis has not been exposed, it undergoes drying and scabbing over it.
As the excess foreskin is removed there is no remaining foreskin to cover the tip of the penis. Often parents ask whether skin will grow over it. It does not. Rather the pink moist skin over the end of the penis becomes like the brown pink dry outer lip skin.
Bleeding is a rare complication and usually settles spontaneously. The urinary opening on the penis can become narrow, especially if there is a skin problem called BXO. If this develops, it might require dilatation under general anesthesia.
In an operation called ‘prepucioplasty’ the narrow ring of skin is divided across and sutured along. This widens the narrowing without removing the foreskin. For this operation to be successful, the boys need to self retract after the operation for 2-3 months.