Does Glue Reduce Penile Adhesions After Circumcision?

This is Todd Ponsky with the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, and here's your two minute review. Today we're going to review an article that was just published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery called The Role of Two octocyanoacrylate in the Prevention of Penile Adhesions after Circumcision A Prospective Randomized Trial. The first author was Dr. Hannah Alamayhew, and the senior author was Dr. Sean St. Peter, and this was out of Mercy Children's in Kansas City. What they set out to determine was is there any benefit of using surgical glue following circumcision. Specifically, their hypothesis was that the use of glue after circumcision would decrease postoperative penile adhesions. So they did a prospective randomized trial. One group had a circumcision followed by the placement of antibiotic ointment, and the second group had a circumcision followed by the placement of surgical glue. Regarding their technique, they used a freehand circumcision using the Gomko clamp, followed by suturing of the skin edges. Then they followed up the patients in 2 and 4 weeks and assessed if they had a difference in penile adhesions, and they also assessed parent satisfaction. So what did they find? They found no difference. They actually started off with 409 patients, but when it came to being able to collect data for follow-up, they only ended up with 243, but the two groups were pretty much equivalent. And when they looked at the two groups, they found no difference. The penile adhesion rate was the same. Parent satisfaction was the same. So in conclusion, it's really dealer's choice. You can use glue or you can use antibiotic ointment. There really is no difference, at least in regards to penile adhesions and parent satisfaction. We hope you enjoyed this review. Please leave your comments below. Specifically tell us which type of dressing you use after circumcision. We'll see you next time. Thanks.