Synechia: Difference between revisions

[[Jakob Øster| Øster]] (1968) was a school physician in [[Denmark]] where boys are not usually [[circumcised]]. Øster conducted regular examinations of school boys from age 6 through age 17 and recorded his results. Øster reported that 63% of 6-7 year old boys; 48% of 10-11 year old boys; and 3% of 16-17 year old boys had a prepuce that was not fully separated.<ref name="Øster1968">{{OesterJ 1968}}</ref> The separation and breakdown and the synechia is natural, normal, spontaneous, and requires no special care. Thorvaldsen & Meyhoff (2005) report about 50 percent of boys can retract their [[foreskin]] by age 10.4, thus confirming Øster's report.<ref name-"thorvaldsen2005">{{REFjournal

When an infant boy is to be [[circumcised]], as remains a practice in the [[United States]], in preparation for the [[circumcision]], the preputial synechia must first be forcibly separated by passing a blunt probe under the foreskin in an intensely [[Pain| painful]] procedure.

Premature forcible foreskin retraction (PFFR) of a boy's [[foreskin]] will rip the boy's synechia apart and cause severe pain and injury to the boys.<ref>{{REFjournal

}}</ref> Unfortunately, many American physicians are ignorant of normal penile anatomy and cause severe pain and grave injury to boys whom they examine in their practice. The first person to retract a boy's [[foreskin]] should be the boy himself.<ref>{{REFjournal

The synechia spontaneously disintegrates to release the [[foreskin]].<ref name="deibart1933" /> The disintegration usually occurs in childhood but will persist into adolescence in a few cases.