Complications of circumcision performed within and outside the hospital

Comparison of incidence of complications observed in circumcisions performed by traditional unlicensed individuals outside the hospital under the non-sterile conditions and in those performed by surgeons within hospital under surgical procedures.

This is a retrospective study to determine the sort of complications and their incidence in 407 cases performed in two towns in our region by unlicensed traditional circumcisers (group 1) and 782 circumcision cases performed in Urology clinic by licensed surgeons (group 2) between April 1999 and August 2002. The complications were proportionally and statistically compared. Correlation between groups was assessed by Pearson correlation test and to compare the complication parameters chi-square test was used (p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant).

The incidence of complications was higher in group 1. All complication parameters were found high in group 1 at a statistically significant extent.

We could conclude that if the circumcision is performed by unlicensed traditional circumcisers instead of surgeons at the sterile hospital conditions it could result in severe early phase complications such as life-threatening or some late phase disorders with life long negative influences.