Infantile penile degloving injury secondary to hair tourniquet

Abstract

Penile degloving injuries are rare, usually involve traumatic forces, and are minimally reported in the medical literature. Whereas penile degloving typically results from obvious traumatic injuries, this case report presents a two-week-old uncircumcised infant presenting to the emergency room with a penile degloving injury due to hair tourniquet syndrome that was not initially apparent. Hair tourniquets, more commonly seen in infants on digits, can lead to devascularization and necrosis of the injured tissue which in this case resulted in a degloving injury. This presentation of a hair tourniquet on an uncircumcised infant causing degloving is uncommon and provides an expanded differential diagnoses in childhood penile injuries.