An approach for using full thickness skin grafts for complex penile surgeries in children

Many problems in pediatric urology derive from a paucity of penile skin resulting from prior surgical interventions. While hypospadias surgery is most often responsible for creating this problem, excessive circumcision also can leave a patient with too little skin to cover the penis. To our knowledge we describe the first series of pediatric patients in whom FTSGs were used in a variety of difficult circumstances where penile skin was lacking.

We retrospectively studied a cohort of 11 children 2 to 13 years old who underwent urethral repair and adjunctive skin grafting due to circumcision injuries (4 patients), traumatic urethral injury (1) or congenital lymphangiectasis (1), or for congenital hypospadias with previous failed surgery (5). In our patients available penile skin was used to reconstruct the urethra, while full thickness inguinal skin grafts were fashioned to resurface the denuded penis following reconstruction.

All patients underwent successful reconstruction and grafting. There were no intraoperative complications. There was 100% take of the grafts. Average followup was 23 months (range 3 weeks to 8.6 years). One patient had slight chordee at 6 years postoperatively, and 1 had development of a urethrocutaneous fistula at 8.6 years. All patients reported normal caliber urinary streams.

Use of full thickness inguinal skin grafts to resurface the penis provided patients with an esthetically acceptable result, and where necessary allowed penile skin to be used for urethroplasty. This technique is useful and justifies consideration in appropriately selected patients.