Post Date April, 15 2023
Phimosis means that the foreskin is long and the foreskin mouth is narrow. The foreskin cannot be turned up and the penis cannot be exposed. This is true for all newborns, but by the age of 3-4, with the development of the child, most of the narrow prepuce mouth expands, and then the prepuce can turn up accounts for 90%.
Almost every boy is born with phimosis, but if it is not phimosis, it may be suffering from other diseases, such as hypospadias or hypospadias. If most children have physiological phimosis, they have almost no abnormal feeling. If they have abnormal feeling, they may have abnormal symptoms caused by physiological phimosis and need to see a doctor. From the age of 3-4, the foreskin mouth begins to expand, and the hard skin can be exposed after the foreskin expansion. After puberty (after the age of 17), the number of phimosis children is less than 1%. In general, 90% of physiological phimosis can heal itself at the age of 3-5 years.
Although physiological phimosis caused by the most typical foreskin scaling is very common among young boys and most of them can heal themselves, it also brings some problems because the foreskin cannot be turned up and the penis cannot be exposed. For example, because the foreskin of this child cannot be turned up, the epithelial cells and sebaceous gland secretions from the penis head and foreskin cannot be discharged, and remain between the foreskin and the penis head. When some parents brought their children to see a doctor, they mistakenly thought it was a knot on their penis, or even thought it was a tumor. In fact, this is the retention of foreskin scale. This situation will cause some problems, such as secondary infection, redness, and purulent secretion.
What symptoms can phimosis cause besides inflammation? When many parents take their children to see a doctor, they mentioned that when the child urinates, the penis will first bulge a small bubble. This is because the prepuce orifice is narrow and cannot be discharged directly through the urethral orifice. It is first discharged into the sac between the prepuce and the penis head, and then discharged. This will lead to the problems of thin urine line and poor urination.
If the child's foreskin is more sclerotic (scaling) from the outside, this indicates that it may cause infection, and parents should pay attention to it. Then pay attention to the color of the child's foreskin when bathing. If it is often red and swollen, it may be infected. You should go to the hospital to see a doctor. After the age of 17, there is still too long foreskin. Do you need special treatment? It depends on the length of the foreskin. Generally speaking, it is only necessary to pay attention to sanitation, and no special treatment is needed. However, if the foreskin is particularly long in adulthood and there is a narrow ring pushed back, you still need to go to the hospital for treatment.
What is the principle of physiological phimosis treatment? We need to have a good communication with our parents, and then there are differences in cultural background and values. For example, the proportion of physiological phimosis surgery in western countries is much higher than that in China. In short, pathological phimosis must be operated, and physiological phimosis needs to be decided after communication between parents and doctors.
(Intern editor: Cai Junyi)
