[ ARC forum 2 ]
Written by Paul B. at 21 Sep 2001 00:09:17: Preputioplasty
As an answer to: Re: plastic surgery treating phimosis written by Mark at 20 Sep 2001 13:09:53:
> I think no way Jose!!!
(:-))
> But I am asking about plastic surgery as a substitute for circ.? ... preputal plasty or something like that?
Ah, now you're talking! That makes a lot of sense. Circumcision is an absurd approach to a tight foreskin, sort of like cutting off your nose so it doesn't get sore when you have a cold.
Preputioplasty is indeed the procedure of making the foreskin opening larger and surgically speaking, it's a "no-brainer". The procedure of a "dorsal slit" has always been a standard one, but has exactly two limitations, of which the first one is that most medical insurance systems account it as trivial compared to a circumcision and therefore pay less, so doctors don't want to do it.
This is a problem of simple ignorance. The other part of it is that the basic dorsal slit procedure may leave a bit of an irregularity of the edge which may be of some cosmetic concern. A reasonably competent surgeon would, or could, correct for this by using slightly more sophisticated "plastic" procedure. What is interesting is that in the process, there is no reason he could not claim this as plastic surgery, because it is, worth substantially more than the crude circumcision.
The only other thing about a preputioplasty is that it is necessary to follow the circumcision "rule" and make sure that it heals up either with the foreskin staying behind the glans during healing, or with it regularly retracted behind the glans during and after healing, so preventing it constricting as scars (healing = scarring, by definition) do.