New circumcision technique saves time, resources
Vancouver doctor uses glue instead of sutures
A Vancouver doctor is heralding a new circumcision technique for patients over one year old that uses a glue instead of sutures and enables him to perform the procedure on patients under local anesthetic.
When Flynn and Flora Yu’s 14- monthold son Clark had his third urinary tract infection in nine months, his parents decided to allow Dr. Neil Pollock to try the circumcision technique for the first time on a child older than one year.
“For us, it was a medical issue so we didn’t really have much choice,” Flynn Yu said of their decision.
Pollock said with the patient under a local anesthetic, the procedure uses glue to quickly close the wound, without the sutures that would take longer and need to be applied under general anesthesia in a hospital operating room. Boys younger than a year often don’t need stitches or glue as their skin heals naturally with a pressure bandage, he said.
American studies have found circumcision can help cut the risk of urinary tract infections for infants.
“I can do the whole surgery and enclosure almost faster than they can roll them in and out of the operating room,” Pollock said. “The benefit to the system is we can off- load all these kids.”
Opponents of circumcision argue children do not have the ability to consent to the procedure and that it reduces sexual satisfaction later in life. Since medical experts in Canada haven’t ruled in its favour, British Columbia’s Ministry of Health only pays for circumcisions when they are deemed medically necessary.
During the 2011- 12 fiscal year, 1,153 British Columbians had medically necessary circumcisions, costing the province $ 174,670, ministry spokeswoman Cindy MacDougall told The Sun in August. The year before that, 1,387 circumcisions were covered by the provincial government.
The cost for these circumcisions averages out to less than $ 150 for each surgery. For parents who elect to circumcise their infant son, it can cost more than double that. Pollock charges $ 445 for babies two months and younger. He said he needs to figure out how to finance more medically necessary cases referred to him by pediatricians because the Medical Services Plan has an existing surgical fee code for the traditional hospital circumcision but not for his procedure.