Comparison of the Late Complications of Circumcision in Different Age Groups

Circumcision is the most common surgical procedure throughout the world today and is usually performed in children for medical, cultural, or religious reasons. In most countries, nonsurgeons or traditional circumcisers perform this procedure, however, there is still a debate regarding the proper age of circumcision.

To determine the best and appropriate time for circumcision, we compared the late complications of this procedure between patients who are circumcised in different age groups.

This is a retrospective and descriptive study that was performed on patients who were referred for late circumcision complications. The patients were divided according to the age range of circumcision as well as the performed age, which were divided into 4 groups (neonate, infant, child, and adolescent) by the author, during the period of May 2010 to December 2013 at an urology clinic. All late complications that were obtained were analyzed and compared between these groups.

Overall, 120 cases of patients were enrolled. The mean age of neonates, infants, children, and adolescent were 14 ± 2.5 days, 4 ± 1.5 months, 6 ± 0.5 years, and 14 ± 1.8 years, respectively. All of them have been circumcised by the classic method. The most common complication (15 patients) was meatal stenosis (12.5%) and was more prevalent in neonates 8 (29.62%).

The ratio of late complications of circumcision is significantly higher in neonates and infants as compared to children as well as adolescents. The results of this study showed that for prevention of developing postoperative complications, the appropriate age of circumcision is to be a child as well as adolescent. For prevention of debilitating and prolonged complications, it should only be performed in medical institutions by suitably trained surgeons.