title: Effect of two surgical circumcision procedures on postoperative pain: A prospective, randomized, double-blind study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Male circumcision (MC) is one of the most commonly used surgical procedures worldwide for medical and traditional reasons. No studies have compared the postoperative pain advantages of conventional techniques (i.e., sleeve and dorsal slit).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this prospective randomized double-blind study, we investigated the effect of two surgical techniques (i.e., sleeve and dorsal slit) on postoperative pain and emergence agitation.
  
  
  METHODS
  This prospective study was conducted between January and July 2013. Approval was obtained from the local Ethical Committee on 17 December 2012, 06/23 (CLINICAL TRIALS IDENTIFIER: NCT 01909765). We compared two surgical techniques (i.e., the dorsal slit incision technique (Group A) and the double incision (i.e., sleeve) technique (Group B) in 60 children who were subjected to MC surgery under general anesthesia. All children received dorsal nerve blocks with bupivacaine. The modified objective pain scale (MOPS) was used for pain assessment, and the Ramsey Sedation Scale was used for the assessment of agitation during anesthesia emergence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The MOPS scores were lower in Group B than in Group A in the post-anesthesia care unit and during the 4th hour post-surgery (p = 0.01 and p = 0.037, respectively). Twelve children (40%) in Group A and 23 children (76.6%) in Group B required no additional analgesia on postoperative day one (p = 0.004). The Ramsey sedation scores were lower in Group A (p = 0.018).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dorsal slit is often the primary method in cases with paraphimosis; during this procedure, the frenulum frequently cannot be preserved at the 6-o'clock position of the mucosa, because of traction applied to skin and mucosa. As a result, the frenular artery is injured. In contrast, the sleeve technique protects the frenulum and the anatomic structures of the glans. In the sleeve technique, providing hemostasis and preventing partial ischemia by protecting the frenular artery reduces postoperative pain and complications. This present study demonstrated that the sleeve technique, which preserved the frenular artery, caused less bleeding, reduced electrocautery use and less ischemia than the dorsal slit technique. The sleeve technique effectively reduces early postoperative pain and agitation after circumcision, provided that adequate postoperative analgesia has been achieved. While all variables except the employed surgical techniques were similar, Group B had advantages with respect to analgesic requirement and pain control during the first 8 h after the operation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The sleeve technique provides lower pain scores and a reduced incidence of agitation after elective MC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital, İrfan Baştuğ Cad. Dışkapı, Ankara 06110, Turkey. Electronic address: nkarakoyunlu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Karakoyunlu
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital, İrfan Baştuğ Cad. Dışkapı, Ankara 06110, Turkey.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Polat
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital, İrfan Baştuğ Cad. Dışkapı, Ankara 06110, Turkey.
authors.forename: G B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Aydin
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital, İrfan Baştuğ Cad. Dışkapı, Ankara 06110, Turkey.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ergil
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital, İrfan Baştuğ Cad. Dışkapı, Ankara 06110, Turkey.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Akkaya
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital, İrfan Baştuğ Cad. Dışkapı, Ankara 06110, Turkey.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ersoy
mesh_terms: D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002944:Circumcision, Male / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011446:Prospective Studies
chemical_list: D000700:Analgesics
keywords: Circumcision; Dorsal Slit; Pain; Sleeve