A 'snip' in time: what is the best age to circumcise?

Background: Circumcision is a common procedure, but regional and societal attitudes differ on whether there is a need for a male to be circumcised and, if so, at what age. This is an important issue for many parents, but also pediatricians, other doctors, policy makers, public health authorities, medical bodies, and males themselves.

Discussion: We show here that infancy is an optimal time for clinical circumcision because an infant's low mobility facilitates the use of local anesthesia, sutures are not required, healing is quick, cosmetic outcome is usually excellent, costs are minimal, and complications are uncommon.

Comparison of Dilapan-S and laminaria for cervical priming before surgical pregnancy termination at 17-22 weeks' gestation.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of medical records of three consecutive cohorts of women. All cohorts received a digoxin feticide injection on Day 1. Two cohorts were treated with laminaria, cohort A of 151 women over 1-2 days and cohort B of 52 women over 1-3 days, and cohort C of 151 women was treated with Dilapan-S over 1-3 days.