Complications of Male Infant Circumcision in a Semi-Urban Niger Delta Town

Aim: This study aims at documenting the prevalence and complications of male infant circumcision and compares the complication rates between various circumcisers.
Study Design: A prospective study.
Place and Duration of Study: 300 consecutive male infants attending the infant immunisation clinic of the Niger Delta University teaching hospital, Okolobiri over a 6 month period; between the October, 2011 and March, 2012.
Method: Relevant information was obtained from the patients who were then examined. Information obtained was recorded on a proforma.
Results: The ages of the infants were between 1 day and 336 days. The circumcision rate was 93.3%. The mean age at circumcision was 15.5± 17.0days. Nurses performed 47.1%, Traditional circumcisers 32.9% and Doctors 20.0% of all circumcisions. Educational status of mothers was a determinant of the Circumciser. None of the infants whose mothers had primary school education was circumcised by a Doctor, most (64.4%) of them were circumcised by a traditional circumciser. The general trend showed that the more educated the mothers of the infants, the more likely it was for their infants to be circumcised by Doctors and Nurses. The complication rate was 24.3%; most were mild. Infants circumcised by Nurses had the most complications (25.8%), followed by those circumcised by Doctors (25.0%) and least 21.7% in infants circumcised by Traditional circumcisers. There was however no significant difference in complication rates between infants circumcised by nurses as compared with Traditional circumcisers (p=.79); there was also no significant difference in complication rates between Doctors and Traditional circumcisers (p=.79).
Conclusion: The prevalence of infant circumcision is very high in our community. The complication rate is also high. There was however no significant difference in complication rates between circumcisers. Efforts must be made to properly train all persons involved in this procedure.