Pediatric UrologyNew Technique for the Treatment of Buried Penis in Children
Section snippets
Patients
Patients who underwent surgical correction of the buried penis at our institution from March 2005 to March 2013 were reviewed retrospectively. Inclusion criteria were patients undergoing their first surgical correction for a normal-sized, short-appearing penis that was completely buried in the prepubic tissue. Patients were excluded if they had concomitant genital anomalies, including concealed penis, webbed penis, trapped penis, or clubbed penis. The parents of the children consented to the
Results
A retrospective review of the hospital records identified 153 males who met the inclusion criteria for the study. Patients ranged in age from 3 to 14 years (median age: 6.5 years). The mean lengths of the exposed penile shaft before and after the operation were 2.35 ± 0.62 cm and 4.23 ± 0.48 cm, respectively (P < .05). No serious complications developed during the average 12-month follow-up period, and all patients had a cosmetically pleasing result. Two patients (1.3%) developed a trapped
Discussion
Owing to its diverse spectra of severity, controversy exists concerning the causes and treatment of buried penis.8 We agree with the etiology proposed by Smeulders et al,6 which states that migratory failure of the tissue planes during penile development leads to formation of extensive adhesions between the penile corpora and Buck fascia. The surgical technique used in the present case series combines previously described methods, such as complete shaft degloving, release of anomalous dartos
Conclusion
We found a favorable short-term success rate for patients with buried penis, especially when the ventral penile skin was comparatively redundant. We believe that our technique is a useful procedure for treatment of buried penis. As most of our patients were prepubertal, long-term follow-up and multicenter experiences with this approach are indicated before this technique can be generally recommended.
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Financial Disclosure: The authors declare that they have no relevant financial interests.
Authors' Contributions: Feng Liu: manuscript writing and project development; Tao Lin: project development; Dawei He: project development; Guanghui Wei: protocol; Junhong Liu: project development; Xing Liu: data management; Yi Hua: data management; Deying Zhang: data management; Peng Lu: data analysis; Shengde Wu: data analysis; Xuliang Li: manuscript editing and protocol/project development.
Ethical Standard: All human studies have been approved by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.