In recent years, clinical surveys have found a significant increase in the incidence of pediatric prepuce, which has caused widespread concern among experts and scholars at home and abroad, and has become a social problem that cannot be ignored in today’s society. Parents usually pay little attention to the normal development of the boy’s external genitalia, and children are not willing to let others pick up the check when they are older. As a result, the prepuce is not discovered, not to mention timely treatment. Even if the circumcision is found, some parents think that the child will grow up and the circumcision will heal itself, and do not pay attention to it. In fact, after the age of 3, it is very difficult for a pediatric circumcision to heal itself.
Prepuce is very common in young boys, with an incidence rate of 16%-32%. In newborn babies, the inner surface of the penile foreskin and the surface of the penis head mostly have mild adhesions, which hinder the upturning of the foreskin. However, a few months after birth, this physiological adhesion is gradually absorbed, the foreskin gradually separates from the penis and becomes movable, and the foreskin can be turned up. In most boys, around the age of 2, this physiological prepuce will disappear naturally as the penis grows. However, after the age of 3, if the foreskin opening is still tight and the foreskin cannot be turned up to the coronal sulcus, it is clinically known as prepuce.
Children with prepuce often show thinning and slowing of urine, and even difficulty in urination, and young children can often cry and quarrel because of difficulty in urination, and sometimes the urethral opening is seen to be enlarged in a “ball shape” when urinating. Because of the narrow foreskin mouth, there may be a lot of yellowish-white secretions accumulated in the foreskin, called “foreskin scale”. The foreskin mouth is narrow, the foreskin cannot be turned up, and the foreskin mouth is even as small as a “needle point”. Some children with foreskin mouth is not too small, but the foreskin and penis tight adhesion, foreskin still can not be turned up.
If not treated in time, glans circumcision often occurs repeatedly, manifested by local redness and swelling, pain when urinating, and sometimes yellow-white pus flowing from the urethra. In addition, there may be foreskin stones, penile head and foreskin leukoplakia, while the long-term stimulation of foreskin scale is an important cause of penile cancer, and is also a predisposing factor for uterine cancer in “spouses” after marriage. Many men have to go to hospital for circumcision only after they fall in love or get married because it affects the harmony of their sexual life.
In the past, surgery was the only treatment for pediatric circumcision. Surgical treatment can theoretically treat all types of children with prepuce, but there are some shortcomings in surgical treatment, such as anesthesia, risk and safety issues of incision, economic issues, relatively painful surgery, greater damage, not easy for children to cooperate, and greater parental concerns. In addition, children need to rest for a period of time after surgery, which affects their life and study. In the past 20 years, medical experts have pioneered “balloon catheter expansion” in China based on the soft and stretchy characteristics of the foreskin of children, using non-surgical treatment of pediatric prepuce, so that many children with prepuce avoid circumcision surgical treatment.
Balloon catheter expansion therapy is to use a specially designed plastic catheter with an airbag, inserted into the foreskin of the child, gradually inject air into the airbag, the airbag evenly expand the foreskin, about a few minutes later, the narrow foreskin is expanded, so that the foreskin can be turned up, so as to achieve the purpose of treatment.
The treatment of pediatric prepuce with balloon catheter expansion therapy is simple, no knife, no scissors, no needle, and no bandage, and can be completed in a few minutes, safe and reliable, cost less, no special care after treatment, no restriction on activities, little pain for the child, and does not affect the normal life and learning of the child, so it is easily accepted by parents and children, and is therefore welcomed by the majority of children and parents. The clinical application of hundreds of thousands of domestic cases of children, the cure rate of more than 99.5%.
Generally, children with prepuce aged 3-7 years old can be treated with balloon catheter expansion, however, if the child has a long-term recurrence of phimosis, which makes the edge of the foreskin mouth form scarring stenosis, lose elasticity, or form serious adhesions that are not easy to peel off, surgery is still necessary. Pediatric circumcision should be treated as early as possible, generally before school age. Otherwise, not only will various complications occur, affecting the child’s growth and development, but also increasing the difficulty of treatment.
Balloon dilation is suitable for the treatment of most children with prepuce. Even some children’s foreskin opening looks particularly small, even as if “pinhole”, other hospitals think that only open surgery, but by our treatment with balloon expansion, the effect is very satisfactory.
If there is local inflammation of the foreskin penis hair, the inflammation should be treated first before treating the prepuce. If the child has other systemic acute and chronic diseases, these diseases should also be treated first before circumcision treatment. However, if the long-term repeated penile prepuce inflammation, so that the edge of the foreskin mouth formed scar contracture or fibrous narrow ring, loss of elasticity and expansion ability, or the formation of adhesions that are not easy to peel off, it is not suitable for balloon expansion, and should be treated surgically. In addition, a small number of children with particularly thick foreskin opening, such as heavy tubular mouth prepuce, are also not suitable for balloon dilation.
In order to promote the healthy growth of children, we ask parents to pay attention to the developmental problems of your child’s external genitalia for early detection and early treatment. The Male Department of the Reproductive Center has more than ten years of experience in minimally invasive treatment of pediatric prepuce with balloon catheter dilation and has cured many pediatric prepuce patients, which is very popular among children and parents. We would like to pay attention to them together with you and escort the healthy growth of children together.