Assessment of the stretched penile length in Sri Lankan newborns

Evaluation of the external genitalia is important in the routine neonatal examination, since abnormalities of the genitalia give clues to underlying endocrine disorders or structural malformations.

The objectives of the study were to document the stretched penile length (SPL) of healthy term neonates born following an uncomplicated delivery at a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka, and to establish the normative data for the SPL for Sri Lankan neonates.

This was a cross sectional observational study, carried out at post natal wards of the Castle Street Hospital for Women, Sri Lanka. The study was done on 369 stable newborns delivered at the gestational age of 37 to 42 weeks. A complete neonatal examination was performed by the principal investigator and the measurements of the weight, length, head circumference and stretched penile length were obtained. Mean penile length and statistically significant difference of penile length (SD) values were calculated. The correlation of mean penile length, period of gestation, birth weight and length were analysed.

The SPL positively correlated with the length of the baby. There is no statistically significant correlation of birth weight, head circumference and gestational age with the SPL. The mean SPL for term Sri Lankan new-borns was 3.03cm ± 0.37cm and the -2SD value was 2.29cm.

Since the -2SD of SPL was 2.29cm, measurements less than this should be considered as micropenis.