A new approach to the surgical correction of buried penis

Abstract

Buried penis has been variously attributed to obesity with excessive suprapubic fat, severe phimosis with trapping of the penis within the prepubic tissues, and inadequate fixation of the penile shaft skin at the base resulting in tenting. Previous attempts at surgical correction, by excising suprapubic fat, fixing penile shaft skin to the base of the penis, and circumcising, have failed to give satisfactory results and, indeed, procedures like circumcision will make the condition even worse. The technique developed by the author is based on the recognition that this condition exists because of the displacement of the root of the penis below its normal position, resulting in the surrounding fat and dartos tissues enveloping the penile shaft. In this procedure, dissection at the root of the penis is carried out deep down to the corporal bodies. All fibrotic tissue that binds the penile shaft is excised. The lengthened penile shaft is anchored at its base by suturing the surrounding tissue onto the tunica. This technique has been applied in 22 patients ranging in age from 5 months to 11 years. Apart from two technical problems, all other patients had satisfactory correction with good functional results.