Yesterday we started the conversation of to circumcise or to not circumcise. It can be a pretty serious debate between physicians as well as families. (has anyone seen the scrubs episode??) But there are some real medical advantages such as decreased incidence of childhood phimosis---a condition where the male foreskin cannot be retracted from the head of the penis. (phimosis is normal in infants, but pathologic in children or adults) The real problem is when phimosis gets infected or if paraphimosis occurs. And its the treatment of paraphimosis thats the kicker.
This brings me to the title of this blog. Its wonderful when patients remember you and have nice things to say about their doctor. Every doc wants to be remembered for something. The treatment for paraphimosis can be circumsion or it can be done the hard way. This entails 4 people to hold the kiddo down. Then one person grabs the foreskin and forcefully pulls it down. This results in mild to moderately bleeding, and a severely traumatized kid. A doc described the aftermath of this treatment: He was walking down the frozen food isle in the local grocery store about 6 months after treating paraphimosis on a 4 year old uncircumcised kiddo. The kiddo took one look at the doc, grabbed his penis, and ran screaming toward his mother. The family actually had to change doctors because the child was so traumatized.
And we say we all want to leave an impression on our patients.
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2 comments:
Phimosis: Can't get your turtleneck on.
Paraphimosis: Can't get your turtleneck off.
Never confused those two ever again after I came up with that.
Heh, if you want to be remembered by your infant patients, then perform non-therapeutic circumcisions.
Some of them will be sure to remember you remember you when they're 18.
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