[Circumcision in the newborn child and risk of urinary tract infection during the first year of life. A meta-analysis].

To assess if neonatal circumcision may decrease the incidence of urinary tract infection (UTI), published papers on these topics were reviewed, to address their methodological shortcomings, and to analyze them in individual and grouped form. A systematic search of the papers on circumcision and UTI was conducted in Index Medicus (1975-1991) and MEDLINE (1988-1991). Six papers were included in the meta-analysis because all of them presented original data obtained from groups of patients. All of the elected articles were considered in individual and grouped form to calculate odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval at 95% (CI 95%). The number of patients included in each paper ranged from 112 to 219,775. Clustering of the articles enabled us to obtain a global sample number of 221,799 patients. In each individual article there was a higher risk of UTI in uncircumcised patients (OR from 10.82 to 156.42). Global risk obtained from the six clustered papers was of 13.05 with a CI 95% from 10.86 to 15.70. Uncircumcised males have low risk of UTI during their first year of life, but the risk may decrease even more with circumcision. This conclusion may not be considered as definitive because of the methodological shortcomings of the papers reviewed. Recommendation of routinely circumcision to all newborns in not justified with these data.