Recovery from circumcision takes about eight to 10 days. While the penis heals, it may look swollen and red.
The penis may feel very sensitive for the first 2 weeks, and dissolvable stitches may last for 2–3 weeks. It is also advisable to keep the area dry for 48 hours and avoid swimming for up to 2 weeks.
Your baby's penis usually fully heals from a circumcision in 7 to 10 days.
Even though your baby's penis will likely start to feel better after 3 or 4 days, it may look worse. The penis often starts to look like it's getting better after about 7 to 10 days. This care sheet gives you a general idea about how long it will take for your child to recover.
The foreskin is removed and stitched onto the remaining skin of the penis. Stitches that dissolve are used to close the wound. They will be absorbed by the body within 7 to 10 days. The wound may take up to 3 weeks to heal.
Normal Circumcision Healing
The incision starts off red and tender. The tenderness should be much less by day 3. The scab at the incision line comes off in 7 to 10 days. If a Plastibell (plastic ring) was used, it should fall off by 14 days.
The patient heals faster in the case of laser circumcision. Thus, laser circumcision is the most preferred procedure by doctors nowadays.
At first, the incision (cut) will be red and the glans (head of the penis) will look like it has been scraped. The area may be tender, but this will lessen over the first couple of days. The penis may also have some redness and swelling and have some yellow pus on the head in particular for up to a couple of weeks.
The swelling gets worse for the first few days after surgery and then slowly resolves. Most of the swelling will be gone within a month but it takes up to 6 months for all of the swelling to go away. The head is often raw when the foreskin is pulled back for the circumcision.
Your child's glans may have off-white or yellowish patches in the first few days after surgery. These are a type of scab and are completely normal. Two or three days after the circumcision, the skin may look green and yellow. This is a sign of normal healing, not pus.
Most of the time it takes between 7 to 10 days for a penis to heal. At first the tip of the penis may appear slightly swollen and red and you may notice a small amount of blood on the diaper. You may also notice a slight yellow discharge or crust after a couple of days. This is a normal part of healing.
The most common structural reason to avoid newborn circumcision is a lack of adequate skin length between the scrotum and the head of the penis. This may be related to buried penis anatomy, or scrotal tethering. In these situations, the penis itself is normal, but the skin and scrotum are attached incorrectly.
It's normal to see a few drops of blood in the diaper for the first three days. If you see active bleeding, or more than a teaspoon of blood in the diaper, please call our urology team.
The extra skin covers the head of the penis, and it can cause mild adhesions or completely cover the penis to the point where it no longer looks circumcised. It depends on how much extra skin is left behind. The redundant skin also can be uneven with more extra skin on one side versus the other side.
It may take about seven to 10 days before the circumcised area is completely healed. Clean the penis by gently blotting or squeezing warm water from a washcloth or cotton ball onto the penis. Do not use soap, lotion, powder or diaper wipes to clean the penis because they may cause stinging or irritation.
After the anaesthetic, your child can start eating a light diet such as sandwiches, pasta, soup or jelly. Avoid fatty or junk food.
It's important to keep the tip of your penis clean. The area should be kept dry for 48 hours after the operation. After this, take warm baths or showers once or twice a day. Don't use bubble bath or scented soaps, as these may irritate your healing wound.
Bathing. It's best to avoid full-body bathing until the second day after surgery, but sponge baths are fine. After the second day, you can shower or bathe as normal, but don't scrub the incision site — just let the soapy warm water run over the incision and pat it dry.
When not enough of the foreskin is removed during the original circumcision, it results in a condition known as redundant foreskin. It is also considered the outcome of an “incomplete circumcision.” When the penis is flaccid, the foreskin will still cover the glans, so the organ appears as if it is uncircumcised.
As the circumcision heals, you will probably see a red "bloody" scab; more likely you will see a white to yellow to gray "wet scab" - this is not pus - it is a normal healing process. Do not mistakenly wipe it off - it will take the penis longer to heal if you remove it!
An uncircumcised penis retains the foreskin, which covers the head of a nonerect penis. When the penis is erect, the foreskin pulls back to reveal the glans. A circumcised penis has no foreskin, which exposes the glans when the penis is both erect and nonerect.
As with any wound, the possibility for abnormal healing is present with circumcision. Although an unusual occurrence, granulomas along the cut edge and keloid formation have been reported. If the patient has any condition that might increase the risk of abnormal healing, circumcision may be contraindicated.
While males can undergo a full or partial circumcision at any age, it's typically easier and less risky to have circumcision in infancy. Some circumcisions only remove a portion of the foreskin. This type of procedure is called a partial circumcision.