Preparing for Hypospadias Surgery

Preparing for Hypospadias surgery

Hypospadias treatment or repair means a corrective surgery. Surgery word itself is very scary and it requires a lot of courage and faith for the parents to handover their little one to the surgical team.  Lot of things go around in the parent’s minds about risks, results and safety of both surgery and anesthesia.

Here are some tips, learnings and guidance for parents while preparing for Hypospadias Surgery for their child.

Before the meeting the Doctor

1. Most cases of Hypospadias are detected at birth. The Pediatrician at birth may not be expert enough to guide further so it’s better to consult a Pediatric Urologist or expert hypospadias surgeon as soon as possible.
2. There is no benchmark for earlier consultation, but it is better to visit to the Pediatric Urologist when the child is less than 6 months old.
3. If you are an outstation patient and are communicating with the doctor over emails, ensure you share following info:
   1. Baby’s Allergies and medications
   2. Any special medication or condition
   3. Any hospitalization and the reason

Sometimes this information doesn’t affect the course of hypospadias surgery, but it is always safe to share as this helps the anaesthesiologist for planning a safe anesthesia.

4.  If you have a limited timeframe for your visit, then

• • Check if there are any further tests (like blood or urine tests) or investigations required before you meet the pediatric urologist/ hypospadias surgeon.
  • As required by the doctor, perform the tests and send the reports to doctor for further guidance. This can be done via email.
  • Sometimes a certain blood count such as hemoglobin may be needed to be normal before hypospadias repair procedure is required to perform before surgery and if the count is not as preferred it may take month to reach the desired level.
  • A thorough history is taken for any evidence of infection, other illness and any familial disorders. A complete blood count, triple H marker and a urine test is done to check for body parameters. A pediatrician consult is often taken for a systemic examination. Chest Xray is no longer recommended routinely before elective surgery if the chest examination is normal.

5. Check for the travel plans of the hypospadias specialist surgeon so that it doesn’t clash with your visit. This makes sure that both you and the surgeon arrive at a date when the surgeon is not travelling and one of the team members is available for the post-operative care as well.

6.Convey your travel plans to the doctor

Once you meet the hypospadias doctor, most of your doubts will be cleared and questions answered in the initial meeting. A date for hypospadias surgery will be decided in the meeting. If you have questions or doubts regarding the hypospadias treatment procedure please ask the doctor, he or she will be happy to guide. Sometimes you may have doubts or questions post consultation check with the doctor and you can email for such doubts. The doctor may suggest hospitalization before the day of the surgery and some additional tests whenever needed.

At hypospadias foundation, we treat more than 200 children and adults with hypospadias every year. Kids and adults travel from all over India and now more than 20 countries to Navi Mumbai for state of art treatment, surgery for hypospadias and best results. Our nursing and medical staff is well trained to help children and their families during post-surgery phase. Dedication to the field of hypospadias has helped us achieve the best results in treatment of hypospadias.