THE CIRCUMCISION REFERENCE LIBRARY
Ming-Chung Ko,1,2 Chih-Kuang
Liu,1,3 Wen-Kai Lee,1 Huey-Sheng
Jeng,1 Han-Sun Chiang,3 Chung-Yi
Li2*
Background/Purpose: To estimate the age-specific
prevalence rates of phimosis and circumcision in an urban
sample of Taiwanese boys.
Methods: A convenience sample of 1145 boys aged from
7 to 13 years was enrolled and cross-sectionally evaluated
for preputial retractability and status of circumcision.
Another convenience sample of 59 newborn male infants was
enrolled from the infant room of a city municipal hospital.
These infants were examined for preputial development at
birth.
Results: None of the newborn male infants had a
completely retractable prepuce (i.e. type 3). The prevalence
rate of type 3 prepuce increased with age from 71.7% (95%
confidence interval [CI], 66.5–75.5%) for boys aged 7
years to 72.4% (95% CI, 67.3–77.0%) for boys aged 10
years and 84.1% (95% CI, 79.6–88.0%) for boys aged 13
years. In contrast, the prevalence rate of type 1 prepuce
decreased with age from 83.1% (95% CI, 71.0–91.6%) for
newborn infants to 0.3% (95% CI, 0.0001–1.8%) for boys
aged 13 years. On the other hand, the prevalence of
circumcision slightly increased with age from 7.2% (95% CI,
5.3–10.8%) for boys aged 7 years to 8.7% (95% CI,
6.5–13.3%) for boys aged 13 years.
Conclusion: Nonretractability of the prepuce was very
common among the Taiwanese newborns. Among the school boys, the degree of preputial
separation and exposure of glans increased with age and
progressed even more rapidly in adolescence. Very few
boys still suffered from unretractable prepuce by the age of
13. [J Formos Med Assoc
2007;106(4):302–307]
Key Words: circumcision, phimosis, prepuce
1Department of Surgery, Taipei City Hospital, and Departments of
2Public Health and 3Medicine, College
of Medicine, Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taipei,
Taiwan.
*Correspondence to: Dr Chung-Yi Li, Department of
Public Health, College of Medicine, Fu-Jen Catholic
University, 510 Chung Cheng Road, Hsinchuang, Taipei 24205,
Taiwan. E-mail: chungyi@mails.fju.edu.tw
http://www.cirp.org/library/normal/ko2007/