Grinding machine: Friend or Foe

Few cases of traumatic loses of the external genitalia have been reported in this part of the world. In a developing country like ours, grinding machines are commonly being used by the people for domestic purposes. Children in their mid fifteens are usually employed to man and operate the machine without proper training and apprenticeship. Many of them have fallen victims of various genito-urinary injuries from grinding machine. Treating a child for complete traumatic loss of penis is rare and challenging any where in the world. A 12 years old boy presented to the emergency unit of our hospital with penile amputation 18 hours after the injury was sustained. A penile reconstruction of corporal cavernosa phalloplasty was used. This method of reconstruction may be used by clinician in our sub-region where other treatment modalities such as replantation by microvascular surgery, use of free radial fore-arm flap or sex reassignment to the female gender may not be feasible or acceptable.