Should children be circumcised if they have inflammation?

In most cases, the foreskin is too long because the penis and scrotum of boys are natural. The phenomenon of foreskin being too long is also congenital and cannot be changed. However, if inflammation occurs in young children, treatment should be considered carefully. Because the children are young, they cannot cooperate well. And the child’s situation is more complicated. Therefore, targeted treatment is needed. So does a child need to be circumcised if he has inflammation?

Is surgery necessary?

First of all, we need to know what phimosis is? The so-called foreskin is an anatomical term, which refers to the skin covering the glans of the penis. Phimosis is the name of a disease, which means that the foreskin opening is too small and too tight, making it impossible to turn it up to expose the glans penis.

Another condition between normal foreskin and pathological phimosis is that the foreskin covers all or part of the glans when the penis is flaccid, but can be easily turned up to reveal the coronal sulcus, which is clinically known as phimosis.

So does phimosis require surgery? Dr. Sun Yang pointed out that if there is no history of infection, simple foreskin is not necessarily requiring surgical treatment. However, since the foreskin is too long and covers the glans and urethral opening for a long time, if you do not pay attention to cleaning, the glandular mucus and urine residues secreted by these parts can easily cause local bacterial growth and lead to infection. In typical phimosis patients, the foreskin is too tight to be turned up for cleaning, so dirt often accumulates there, and infection is almost certain to occur. Therefore, circumcision should be encouraged for these patients.

At the same time, laboratory research has also found that there are receptors for bacteria and viruses on the foreskin of many people. Due to the thin texture of the foreskin, it is often more vulnerable to damage than the skin on other parts of the body. Therefore, children with weakened immunity or who have already been infected should also undergo circumcision to preserve as little foreskin tissue as possible.

Contraindications to circumcision

However, there is one condition - concealed penis is a contraindication to circumcision. Unlike traditional phimosis, hidden penis refers to a situation in which the penis is normally developed but appears short in appearance.

There are many reasons for this phenomenon, mainly including poor adhesion of the penis and scrotum skin or subcutaneous tissue, scar traction after trauma or surgery, and accumulation of lower abdominal fat covering the penis. Except for the coexistence of severe phimosis, concealed penis itself generally does not affect the development of the penis. However, due to its short appearance, it often causes psychological disorders in patients and affects the group life of children. Some symptoms may linger and may affect the couple's life in adulthood.

In the eyes of professional urologists, this situation is one of the contraindications for circumcision. Since traditional circumcision surgery only removes the excessively long foreskin, the result is often that the originally short penis is sunken deeper under the skin in front of the pubic bone, aggravating the severity of the disease. Therefore, these patients must undergo penile plastic surgery by a specialized pediatric urologist.

"For phimosis or excessive foreskin, it is only necessary to remove the excessive foreskin, while for the treatment of concealed penis, the corpus cavernosum of the penis needs to be 'pulled' out from under the skin and fixed. If circumcision is performed due to misdiagnosis, the penile skin will become even shorter, and may even lead to deepening of moderate or severe concealed penis or formation of a bound penis, which will bring great difficulties to further treatment. Therefore, before parents take their children for circumcision, they must go to a regular hospital for examination and diagnosis." said Dr. Sun Yang.

Surgery may have other benefits

In fact, 90% of healthy baby boys have phimosis, that is, the foreskin opening is very small, the foreskin is long, and it hangs at the front end of the penis, shaped like a "flask". This is a normal physiological phenomenon, called physiological phimosis, also called congenital phimosis. So, generally speaking, there is no need to pay special attention to the foreskin of children under one year old. Just push the foreskin upwards gently when taking a bath to enlarge the foreskin opening and clean it.

If the child's foreskin opening is very thin, even like a needle tip, then the foreskin will bulge when urinating. In this case, the foreskin opening needs to be enlarged.

Starting from the age of 3, parents should help their children push up the foreskin as much as possible every time they take a bath. Take it step by step. As long as you persist every time you bathe your child, most children will be able to completely turn back their foreskin one day. When the foreskin is fully turned up, a groove under the head of the penis can be revealed, which is called the coronal sulcus.

One thing I want to remind everyone is that each time you turn it over it is for cleaning, and you should turn it down immediately after cleaning. Otherwise it will swell up.

However, there are some benefits to circumcision. Dr. Sun Yang pointed out that there are many studies proving the benefits of circumcision. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also cited research showing that circumcision can reduce the risks of urinary tract infections, multiple sexually transmitted diseases, penile cancer, phimosis, balanitis, and HIV infection; that male circumcision is also good for the health of female partners and can reduce the risk of cervical cancer caused by human papillomavirus.

"Simple circumcision surgery not only reduces inflammation of the foreskin itself, but also greatly reduces the probability of urinary tract infection and even systemic diseases secondary to foreskin infection. Therefore, it was ranked first among the top ten medical breakthroughs in the evaluation of Time magazine in the United States."

Phimosis is a common phenomenon and is generally not strictly defined as a condition requiring surgery. If the glans penis can be easily turned out for cleaning, surgery is not necessary. However, surgery can indeed further improve hygiene and quality of life and reduce the incidence of certain diseases to a certain extent. ”