I was told by my son’s pediatric urologist that he needs a certain type of operation. After our first visit I tried to google his specific problem, but all I found were porn sites. I had the nurse actually write down the name of the procedure today, but I’m assuming she’s misspelling it because I’m still not getting proper medical sites.
The nurse wrote down “Meatosis”. The procedure is to enlarge the opening of his penis because his flow is abnormally low/slow, which causes him a great deal of pain.
You can imagine the results I’ve gotten with the words “enlarge” and “penis” in my search!
Thanks in advance for any help you can give with the proper name of this operation.
Try this. It looks like the opening at the end of the penis is called the urinary meatus, and so the operation is a meatotomy. Try more searching with those terms.
I’m tellin’ you, the things I learn on here. I would not in a million years have looked that up on my own.
www.m-w.com says meatus is pronounced “me-ate-us.” It doesn’t bring up meatotomy.
BTW, meatus seems to be a general word for a body opening, so if you hear someone say something about a meatus on another part of their body, don’t freak out.
I’d like to get a medical professional in here, too, to see if this is right. I think I’ve found the right thing, but verification is a good thing.
Thanks for the speedy response - but that was one of the sites that made me think I had the wrong spelling.
Could this operation really be a form of “body modification”? He’s only 9, and the doctor made this sound like a routine procedure (although he does need to be under anesthesia for the operation).
You’re right, I’m hoping a medical professional will stop by with a definitive answer.
It is routine.
It is a modification only in the sense that his natural anatomy needs a little help. The twig and berries will survive essentially unscathed.
Local anesthesia will suffice.
Assuming the physician is competent it’s the right thing to do.
The pronunciations are correct. Me uh TOT uh me for meatotomy.
I believe the nurse confused the word meatotomy with another common condition called phimosis and her brain wrote down meatosis.
In return for this post, can you pass along those penis-enlarging sites? …oh nevermind…as long as it works…
The Wikipedia article has the correct information. Unfortunately, it mixes up lots of different reasons for it to be done so that it sounds bizarre. It is a form of “body modification” in the same way that every other surgery is so that is a poor choice of terms. All it amounts to is that the put the kid to sleep and then using some crushing tools followed by some cutting to make the hole bigger. The actual surgery is very fast and over in a few minutes.
If you read the Wikipedia article again disregarding every bizarre and irrelevant sentience, it makes more sense. I am not a medical professional but I did go to grad school in sexual differentiation and have done hundreds of surgeries on animal sex organs.
Here are the parts you need to know:
“A variety of techniques may be used to make the cut, but a doctor will generally crush the vernal meatus, urethra, and upper frenulum for 60 seconds with a straight Kelly hemostat and then divide crush line with fine-tipped scissors.”
“Depending on the anatomy of the individual and the extent of the split, meatotomy performed with a scalpel may involve heavy bleeding, while crush and cauterisation methods are relatively bloodless. Regardless of the procedure used, meatotomies, … heal quickly. Unlike other genital modifications, the glans tissue does not have a tendency to re-adhere to itself or heal closed.”
You may have already seen this page. Meatotomy is the appropriate procedure for very distal urethral stricture. Repeated urethral dilation tends to result in recurrence of the problem. I am assuming that your son has meatal stenosis rather than phimosis, which would more likely be treated by circumcision.
Persons in the body-modification community also perform meatotomy and other genital alterations for a variety of reasons. This does not mean that there are not legitimate medical reasons to perform a meatotomy.
It is likely that your son’s incision will be on the order of a few millimeters long - just long enough to allow the normal passage of urine without pain. Folks who have this done for body-mod reasons tend to go for much larger incisions, opening up a lot more of the urethra. So if you find images through Google that bother you, remember that a urologist is aiming for restoration of function, not shock value.
Please make sure that your son’s urologist answers all your questions before you go through with the procedure. And if you have doubts about the diagnosis or treatment recommendation, it is always appropriate to seek a second opinion.
With a local he’d still be aware of what’s happening, but if they give him something like versed he won’t remember any of it. Would they be able to keep him calm and not interfear with the procedure?
Many pediatric procedures are done with a drug called Propofol. It is very short acting* and causes complete amnesia for the time it’s in use. While it doesn’t interfer with breathing, it must be monitored by a physician with anesthesia experience.
*The patient begins to awaken as soon as the infusion is stopped.
I’ve been put under with that stuff a few times now, and it is easily the best form of anaesthesia I’ve encountered in my 25+ urology ops. The inductions were that quick that even though they have never asked me to count to ten, if they did, I don’t think I would make it to 4.
My son had this done earlier this year (he’s 5). The doctor was impressed with his bladder muscles–he’d had no problem urinating but the doctor pointed out that it would become more difficult when he got older and his bladder got bigger, but the hole remained small.
It was outpatient surgery. Since he was old enough to know what was going on, they gave him something to make him groggy and I went into the operating room with him to hold his hand until they put him under. He was out in a couple of hours–very groggy and moody from the anesthesia, but he got over that in an hour or so. He remembered nothing about the period before they put him under.
He had pain at first when urinating, but that was gone by the next day (and the gave him massive drugs that he only needed on day 1) and there was a little blood. He also urinated in a split-stream, caused by the stitches and the healing, but that stopped in about a week. It freaked him out at first, and it was a bit messy, but we all got over it. The doctor said that was normal.
That was about 5 months ago, and he’s been perfectly fine since the operation. He only had to stay home from daycare for a day. 2 months later his baby brother had to have a different procedure done to his penis. The drama never ends.
The surgery is common and it went well. I’m sure your son will have no problems.
I missed the crushing tools part. I don’t recall that from our surgery. The doc made an incision, put a balloon in the urethra to make sure it was not narrowed (which can happen in addition to the too-small hole) and made the hole bigger. I don’t think there was crushing involved, but then, I only stuck around for the anesthesia. If there was crushing, you would never have known it; there was no bruising of the tissue anywhere.
A small hemostat clamp crushes the skin to be cut. It helps it not bleed.
We are not talking about some big old vise grip chomping Mr Happy. Just a tiny section of tissue underneath the tip.
That’s why, when I want to learn more about something, I hardly ever Google it anymore. My first choice is Wikipedia. Granted that not everything on Wikipedia is accurate, but it is still a lot better than the porn and advertisements that Google gives me.
Of course, in this particular case it would not have helped, because the nurse misspelled it. But I wanted to get on the soapbox anyway.
Sorry to respond so late, but I just wanted to thank everyone for their help.
It’s a great help to know the proper term for this operation (that doesn’t involve porn sites!
Ceejaytee, I’m glad your son is fine now (and I hope your other son had an easy procedure as well).
Can I ask why your son needed stitches? My son’s urologist said no stitches were necessary, but perhaps I need to ask for some more information.
Also, what drugs was he given for only one day? Antibiotics?
