Minimally invasive circumcision with a novel plastic clamp technique: a review of 7,500 cases.

PURPOSE

We aimed to analyze the outcome of circumcisions performed with a new minimally invasive circumcision device.

METHODS

This is the first study, which reports the results of 7,500 children circumcised with minimally invasive technique utilizing a plastic clamp device (Ali's clamp) in our country. The results of this technique are compared to those of 5,700 children who underwent conventional circumcision.

RESULTS

The most common complication encountered after minimally invasive circumcision technique was found to be buried penis (1.04%). The second complication observed was infection (0.6%), which was significantly lower than the conventional group (p < 0.001). The third complication in plastic clamp group was bleeding with a rate of 0.4%. Bleeding was found to be the most common complication seen after conventional circumcision (5%) and was significantly higher than that of the plastic clamp group (p < 0.001). Total number of complications seen after plastic clamp technique was 2% when compared with 10.4% complication rate occurred after conventional circumcision (p < 0.001). The mean duration of circumcision time with plastic clamp technique was 4.5 +/- 1.5 min whereas with conventional circumcision it was 23 +/- 4 min (p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

Minimally invasive circumcision technique utilizing plastic clamp significantly reduced the complication rates. The cosmetic appearance after circumcisions performed with this technique was observed to be better than the conventional circumcisions. Due to reduced complications, as well as short duration and ease of application, the minimally invasive technique is suggested as the circumcision procedure of choice.