1. They speak of circumcision. No mention of dorsal slit. In the days of my youth, very very long ago (as a surgical houseman - I was not a patient) a dorsal slit was an option.
Has it fallen out of favour? Considering the rich neurological endowment of the prepuce, it ought not to be consigned to history books.
2. Their patient is, I guess, a hypothetical patient. Non-retractability is only of a few months duration. Clearly infection is the cause.
3. The authors describe a very high rate of full spontaneous retractability of the prepuce in children. Hard to believe. I appreciate the risk of being accused of indecency if you go around pushing the foreskin back in symptomless children. So, I do not recommend a survey. It should be possible though, to study the records of circumcision at various ages to see how many teenage boys have been circumcised for other than religious reasons.
4. Our cousins - eg, the Chimpanzees and Orang Utans - must possess a prepuce. Have the veterinarians of the British zoos come across cases of paraphimosis?
I would be grateful for replies to the above comments.
Rapid Response:
Re: Tight foreskin
Raja and colleagues puzzle me.
1. They speak of circumcision. No mention of dorsal slit. In the days of my youth, very very long ago (as a surgical houseman - I was not a patient) a dorsal slit was an option.
Has it fallen out of favour? Considering the rich neurological endowment of the prepuce, it ought not to be consigned to history books.
2. Their patient is, I guess, a hypothetical patient. Non-retractability is only of a few months duration. Clearly infection is the cause.
3. The authors describe a very high rate of full spontaneous retractability of the prepuce in children. Hard to believe. I appreciate the risk of being accused of indecency if you go around pushing the foreskin back in symptomless children. So, I do not recommend a survey. It should be possible though, to study the records of circumcision at various ages to see how many teenage boys have been circumcised for other than religious reasons.
4. Our cousins - eg, the Chimpanzees and Orang Utans - must possess a prepuce. Have the veterinarians of the British zoos come across cases of paraphimosis?
I would be grateful for replies to the above comments.
Competing interests: No competing interests