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Foreskin
,→Pathological Phimosis: Clean up article.
In pathological phimosis, the foreskin cannot be retracted over the glans without injury, due to a lack of elasticity caused by scarring or hardening.
Repeated infections of the tight foreskin cause this scarring. Also, forceful attempts to retract the foreskin cause tearing with subsequential scarred [[phimosis]]. [[Lichen sclerosus]], that first leads to adhesion and then to shrinking, can also be the cause of [[phimosis]]. This rare, non-contagious chronic skin disease is partly genetically caused and considered incurable.
<ref>http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen_sclerosus_et_atrophicus</ref>
Pathological phimosis usually requires treatment.
A circumcision is indicated in severe cases of pathological phimosis, where neither non-surgical methods with corticosteroid cream nor foreskin-preserving preputioplasty are promising (for example with chronic balanitis xerotica obliterans) or have failed in previous attempts.