Circumcision presents a multitude of risks and dangers. Death, of course, is the most devastating. Infection or bleeding can cause death. Perhaps the next most devastating is ablation of a portion or all of the glans penis. Today I was reviewing a medical text on genital reconstructive surgery. Chapter 72 is on circumcision. Under "Penile Amputation" the following statement is found: [quote]"Sherman and colleagues reported seven cases of amputation of the glans following circumcision with a Mogen clamp. Half of the attendees at the 1995 meeting of the section on urology of the American Academy of Pediatrics had treated such a complication." [quote]. Cilento & Kaplan, Ch. 72, "Circumcision" in Ehrlich & Alter, Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery of the External Genitalia, Adult and Pediatric (W. B. Saunders Co. 1999), p 411.
I have handled or am in the process of handling 5 cases of partial penile amputation, three of them occurring in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
The AAP has consistently downplayed the risks of circumcision in their policy statements. Dr. Kaplan, who co-authored Ch. 72 above, was on the 1999 committee. The 1999 statement did mention glanular ablation, but did not emphasize it. I think that if one half of the pediatric urologists attending the AAP convention in 1995 had treated a penile ablation then the risk is much greater than the AAP has ever admitted.
Incidentally, when I represented a boy in Texas who suffered a loss of much of his shaft skin with too much inner foreskin being left behind, his own urologist gave a recorded statement to the defense in which he opined that such was not malpractice. He said he repaired one such result a week! Apparently in his mind the fact that accidents happen so often mean that they are not malpractice!!
The fact is that circumcision injuries are quite common. That's the reason for all those "redos" and repairs. Prospective parents need to know this and take this into account when making up their minds about circumcision. It is only "minor" surgery if no accident happens!!
I have handled or am in the process of handling 5 cases of partial penile amputation, three of them occurring in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
The AAP has consistently downplayed the risks of circumcision in their policy statements. Dr. Kaplan, who co-authored Ch. 72 above, was on the 1999 committee. The 1999 statement did mention glanular ablation, but did not emphasize it. I think that if one half of the pediatric urologists attending the AAP convention in 1995 had treated a penile ablation then the risk is much greater than the AAP has ever admitted.
Incidentally, when I represented a boy in Texas who suffered a loss of much of his shaft skin with too much inner foreskin being left behind, his own urologist gave a recorded statement to the defense in which he opined that such was not malpractice. He said he repaired one such result a week! Apparently in his mind the fact that accidents happen so often mean that they are not malpractice!!
The fact is that circumcision injuries are quite common. That's the reason for all those "redos" and repairs. Prospective parents need to know this and take this into account when making up their minds about circumcision. It is only "minor" surgery if no accident happens!!
:
