[Acquired phimosis, or preputial sclero-atrophic lichen in children]

From 1979 to 1988, 8 cases of balanitis xerotica obliterans were histologically demonstrated in children at Nantes University Hospital. In 6 of these 8 patients, whose average age at the time of consultation was 9.4 years, the phimosis was obviously acquired or recurrent, and the prepuce was sclerous, thick, and produced a tight distal phimosis. One child coming to consultation for relapsing urinary infections at once presented with a long, tight stenosis of the anterior ureter, associated with a dilatation of the upstream ureter and a filiform stream of urine. All the children were circumcised, and the histological study of the specimen demonstrated characteristic lesions in the superficial derma. During the same operation, meatostomy was performed in two children presenting with meatal stenosis. Six of 8 children were followed up with an average time lapse of 6 months: one of them presented with an involvement of the glans penis and a moderate meatal stenosis, which disappeared spontaneously. No improvement occurred for the child presenting with an extensive stenosis of the anterior ureter, in spite of the local instillation of androgens then of corticoids, but his left kidney was dilated on sonograms. Balanitis xerotica obliterans in children is often not recognized and regarded as a common phimosis; it can be suspected because of the clinical features of the phimosis. The condition must be confirmed by the histological study of a circumcision specimen, then followed up regularly to prevent any risk of involvement of the glans, of the ureteral meatus or of the anterior ureter.