ABSTRACT

Skin or soft tissue losses of the penis cause significant morbidity for the patient, and coverage of these defects may also pose a formidable challenge for the surgeon. In this paper results of the 9 patients treated with skin graft for penile skin defect are evaluated. Causes of the skin defect were prior surgery in 3 cases, gunshot injury in 5 cases and dermatological disorder in 1 case. Five patients who had relatively small skin loss were treated with full thickness skin graft, whereas 4 cases were treated with split thickness skin graft. Graft thickness was preferred as 0.015 inches. Meshing was not performed but a few stab incisions were done on graft to ease the drainage of particular fluid collected under the graft. Graft was sutured to the skin defect with a 4/0 chromic catgut. A specially designed sponge dressing the penis circumferentially was applied to immobilize the graft and penis. Patients were maintained on bed rest for 5 days, and dressings were changed afterwards. The ratio of graft take was 100% in the patients. The mean follow-up period was 7 months, and satisfactory cosmetic and functional results were achieved with skin graft administration.