Congenital deformities or anomalies are problems which start in the intrauterine life, when the fetus (baby) is developing in the womb. These deformities are of multiple types and they involve different organ systems of newborn. Genital deformities can happen as a single or set of problems involving external genitalia and/or genitourinary tract in males or external genitalia, uterus and/or kidneys in females.
Male genital abnormalities are of different types. Male genital abnormalities involve conditions that boys are born with affecting parts like the penis, testes, and urethra. These can influence various functions and often need medical treatment.
Common genital problems in male present since birth (congenital in nature) include hypospadias (with multiple subtypes), epispadias (with multiple subtypes), buried penis, phimosis, micropenis, ambiguous genitalia, paraphimosis, penile agenesis/absence (aphallia), chordee without hypospadias, hernia, hydrocoele, bifid scrotum, cryptorchidism/undescended testis, retractile testes, etc.
The anomalies which may result from circumcision include excessive residual foreskin, removal of too much foreskin, meatal stenosis, granuloma, torsion of penis, chordee (curved penis), skin bridges, glans amputation, inclusion cyst and urethrocutaneous fistula (rarely).
Different male genital disorders require different types of plastic surgery. Even for a single deformity, multiple surgical approaches have been described. What is most important for most of these male genital disorders is the proper timings of surgery. The majority of these anomalies/deformities need to be corrected with proper plastic surgery during infancy or early childhood. Due to a lack of awareness/knowledge, many parents miss this ideal time for the correction of these problems. However, they can be corrected afterward also, albeit with decreased advantage.
At Cutis, all the patients for male genital problems are examined in detail by our qualified and experienced plastic surgeon. Parents and family members of such children are obviously anxious. They are counselled thoroughly and all their doubts and queries are cleared before subjecting the child for surgery. At Cutis, we have an excellent anesthesia facility for small children, we prioritize the surgery of small children over everything and schedule their surgery early in the morning. Our surgeon is always available in the hospital for post operative care after the surgery. We do not hesitate to take help of qualified colleagues from other specialties like pediatric surgery and urology when required.
Congenital genital deformities are a group of anomalies involving genitals (private parts) of a male child and these deformities are present since birth. The exact cause of these anomalies is not known. They result from disturbance in the process of development during the intrauterine life of a fetus. However, they are diagnosed usually after the birth of a baby or in certain cases, much later in life.
Hypospadias is a congenital male anomaly which has two main components. One very obvious is absence of urethral opening at the tip of penis. Rather than being at the tip of penis, urethral opening is located on the undersurface of shaft of the penis (ventral surface) anywhere from just below the glans up to the area below the sctotum (perineum). Another distinct feature of hypospadias is downward curvature of the penis (chordee). Hypospadias correction is done by surgery and the surgery involves one of the two techniques. One and the preferred technique is single stage hypospadias repair (surgery done in single sitting) and another technique is multi stage repair (surgery done in either two or three stages). Surgeon’s choice of technique depends on the complexity of the hypospadias deformity.
Epispadias is the reverse of hypospadias where the opening of urethra is located on the upper surface of shaft of penis (dorsal surface). And the penis is slightly curved with concavity upwards. Epispadias is also of different grades of severity, same as hypospadias. However, in extreme grades of epispadias, whole urethra is open on its upper surface till the urinary bladder includind abdominal wall in its lower part. This deformity is very complex and known as Exstrophy of bladder. Correction requires multidisciplinary approach with multiple staged surgeries.
Micropenis (buried penis) is not always the small sized penis. Usually, it is the excessive fat deposition in the suprapubic area which makes the penis appear as if buried in the skin. Sometimes, due to scarring resulted from previous surgeries, skin on the upper surface (dorsum) of penis is pulled up leading to apparent decrease in penile length and micropenis like appearance. True micropenis is a really small sized penis. With thorough clinical eamination, proper diagnosis and supportive investigations, the cause of micropenis is decided and corrective plastic surgery is planned and executed accordingly.
Cryptorchidism is the medical name of undescended testis. During the development of male child, both testis develop behind the abdomen (retroperitoneum) at the level of kidneys and by the birth of the child, they descend to their original place i.e., scrotum. However, many children do not have their testis descended in the scrotum by their birth. Majority of these undescended testis descend slowly and reach to the scrotum by first birthday of the child. However, some of these testes remain static during their course of descent and remain either in the abdomen or inguinal canal. These testes if not brought below and fixed to the bottom of scrotum, can lead to infertility in adult life or can cause complications. An operation to bring down and fix these undescended testes to bottom of scrotum is called the orcheopexy.
Phimosis is the condition where patient is not able to retract his preputial skin (foreskin). Initially, this condition doesn’t cause any problem, except ballooning of skin of penis while urinating. Untreated, this condition can lead to infection and obstruction of flow of urine necessitating urgent surgery. Urgent surgery can be avoided by early diagnosis and timely surgery. Circumcision is the simple and definitive surgery to cure phimosis. And when circumcision done by a plastic surgeon, patient has very good aesthetics of the penis along with effective and quick healing.
Congenital inguinal hernia is an abnormal protrusion of a part of bowel above the groin crease in infants and young children. This condition can be associated with undescended testis or can happen as an isolated problem. Early diagnosis and surgical correction by an operation called herniorraphy is the treatment of choice for permanent cure.
We provide effective surgical and non-surgical treatments for all parts of the body. At Cutis Hospital, our cosmetic and plastic surgery team is committed to giving patients safe and high-quality care.
