At about 2 months of age, I noticed that my son had a tiny penile adhesion. The dr. said to put some hydrocortisone on it for two weeks and it should go away. At his 4 month appt, they said it probably wouldn't go away on it's own now and that he should see a pediatric urologist. I took him to the urologist last week and he wants to give him anesthesia and then take care of it. My husband and I are worried about giving him the anesthesia at such a young age. I've read a lot of things on the internet and it sounds like sometimes these things take care of themselves. We are struggling with taking care of this before he's too old to know and the possibility of it maybe going away on it's own. Anyone have any advice if they've been through this before?
Hi. My son didn't have what your son has, but he had hypospadia (sp?) It's where the pee hole is facing down instead of at the tip. He had his surgery around 6 mo. of age. It's better to get it taken care of now, than wait till later. I know it's hard to put your son in someone elses hands, but in the end it will all work out.
My friend's husband STILL has his, and now doesn't want to have any sons of his (luckily they only have a girl at this point) to be circumcised (sp?). I want to make sure though, is this where the skin reattaches at the circ. site? I would have it taken care of now. They may be able to do a less invasive anesthesia maybe something similar to what they use at the dentist? I dunno, address your concerns to the doctor, and don't be afraid to ask for a second opinion!
As I am the mom of a girl, I cannot help you with the penile adhesion part of your concern, but I did want to address your concern over anesthesia. My daughter underwent general anesthesia when she was just 17 days old, at 8 weeks old, and at 10 months old; she also had "twilight" anesthesia at 14 weeks old. In all cases, her recovery was carefully managed by the hospital staff, and she did beautifully. The only small snag occurred about five days out from the surgery at 10 months old, when she developed night terrors for about five nights as the last of the anesthesia and heavier pain meds left her system.
That said, I know how hard it is to submit your baby to surgery, so I think that you are right to ask questions and gather some advice. Best wishes to all of you.
Jennifer
Hi, my son is 5 years old and is not circumsized, but his has already detached itself. We have never forced it back, it just did it gradually on its own...and it was all the way attached at birth. To my understanding it can take longer to detach (puberty), but I am certain that it does eventually detach itself without any intervention. We just pulled it back (without forcing it) when we cleaned him and it is fine and can pull all the way back (no adhesion) now. I say give it time, it's just cosmetic until then and NO reason to put a baby under.
Depending on how much adhesion there is, the doctor can simply use his fingers to gently pull apart the adhered area. My son had the same thing at roughly 2-4 months, and he didn't fuss a bit. The area looked a little raw, sort of like when he was circumcised, but no trouble afterward.
My daughter underwent surgery at 9 months for a cosmetic condition. She could have had the surgery at 4 months, but since it was only cosmetic, I decided to wait for fear of the anesthesia. The worst part was at children's hospital in DC, there policy is that children under 1 year of age must be taken away from the parent, brought into surgery, and put to sleep immediately for some "safety" reasons. Older children get to be with there parents. Everything turned out fine and actually getting her there with no liquids in the morning was the worst, however I did sneak her some pedialite and that seemed to help her cravings. It's my understanding that little boys normally have adhesions atinfancy, so maybe a second opinion, or you could just wait since it's not interfering at this point. Good Luck!
Sometimes the worst thing about all the information on the net is that you can scare yourself to pieces.
It's a common, routine procedure with minimal risk. He'll be fine, don't freak yourself out. It's a heart-tug as they carry the little one off (been there), but it'll be okay.
My son had a circumcision right after he was born and the pediatrician found he had penile adhesion at his 1 year visit. She tried to get me to fix it on my own but I couldn't bring myself to do it, so she handled it right there in the office. It consisted of nothing more than pulling the skin back, essentially breaking the adhesion, with no anesthesia. It was very painful for him and he refused a diaper and walked funny for about a week afterward (he has no memory of any of this). The key to preventing it from happening again was making sure to pull the skin back fully and applying a little ointment at each diaper change. Fortunately, we nipped it in the bud and it never came back. It hurt me to watch it almost as much as it hurt him to have it done. It was such a quick procedure and although painful, it wasn't harmful, I just couldn't imagine having him under anesthesia for this. I have also read where these things can take care of themselves at puberty, so if it's a recurring thing, you're doing everything you can to keep the skin pulled back and it's not posing any problems with urination, infections or blood circulation, I really don't see the point of anesthesia. I'm not a professional, but that's my opinion. Good luck with your decision.
My vote is for a second opinion, always. Especially if doing it will simply ease your mind. But I don't think they would put him under if the anesthesiologists didn't know what they were doing, if they thought it was dangerous for him. (!?)
Another question; is it just cosmetic, or is it bothering him? If it's just cosmetic I wouldn't bother. As to him being old enough to know about it, probably if you don't make a big deal out of it, he won't. Explain it to him and if he's of and age to ask to have it surgically done, go for it then.
Second opinion...!
-S. Kav
A.,
I can understand your concern about giving your son anesthia at such a young but I wanted to let you know that my husband and i had the same concern when our now 3 year old had to have surgery for a stomach problem at 5 weeks, it was very scary but he did great and we were in the recovery area when he came out of surgery so he saw us the first thing when he started waking up. I wish you the best of luck.
