Advantages of Neonatal Circumcision: Review on Past and Present

Carrying out circumcision is a common practice in many countries. In the USA, almost 80% of male infants are circumcised. The importance of circumcision in reducing the risk of urinary tract infection has been demonstrated in several studies. Moreover, the role of circumcision in decreasing the risk of male genital cancers has been confirmed. It has been shown that to achieve the advantages of circumcision, it should be performed in neonates. Sometimes, circumcision is delayed due to the fear of meatus stenosis. However, the fear is not true, as meatus stenosis can be treated easily in outpatient services, and it rarely causes complications. Therefore, delaying circumcision causes not to achieve the advantages of the procedure, including prevention of neonatal and childhood urinary tract infection, and their complications such as kidney diseases. Even it has been shown that circumcision would be helpful in prevention of genital system cancers, only if performed during neonatal period. Furthermore, carrying out the procedure during neonatal period is accompanied with some other benefits. For instance, wound healing is excellent in this period, and the circumcision lesion would heal almost at the same time as the umbilical cord falls off, and the risk of infection is very low, since the maternal antibodies are present in neonate’s blood and the wound region has a very good blood supply and is resistant against infection. Neonatal circumcision is not accompanied by the problems and psychological stresses, experienced in childhood circumcision. The current study evaluates the available evidence on neonatal circumcision, to elucidate the importance of circumcision timing. Moreover, the appropriate method of carrying out the procedure is provided in the paper, to be used as a guide.