Prepuce in boys and adolescents: What, when, and how?

The prepuce envelops the glans as a variant of a mucocutaneous tissue presenting with a lot offunctions, the most important of them being to protect the infant's glans from feces and ammonia in diapers, to protect the glans from abrasions and trauma throughout life, and to provide sufficient skin in erection. Circumcision was recognized as a method of solving foreskin problems a long time before Christ. Practicing male circumcision in history was customary several thousand years ago and has spread worldwide. Today it depends on races, and it is often an initiation ceremony near the age of puberty. In everyday practice in pediatric urology outpatient department the foreskin problems have been noticed as a phimosis in 9.91% cases and prepuce adhesions in 3.98%. Congenital anomalies are present in different numbers. Other problems, such as paraphimosis, balanoposthitis, are recorded as accidental cases. Over-all prepuce pathology can be observed in 12%-25% of patients. The article presents a review of foreskin conditions, clinical manifestation, therapy and arguments for patient's benefits.