ESPE Abstracts

Background: Evaluation of the external genitalia is very important in the routine neonatal examination, since abnormalities of the genitalia give clues to underlying endocrine disorders or serious structural malformations. This is the first report regarding the stretched penile length (SPL) of newborns from Sri Lanka.

Objective and hypotheses: The objectives of the study were to document the SPL of healthy term neonates born following an uncomplicated delivery at a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka, and to establish the normative data for the SPL for Sri Lankan neonates.

Method: This was a cross sectional observational study, carried out at post natal wards of the Castle Street Hospital for Women, Sri Lanka. The study was done on 369 stable newborns delivered at the gestational age of 37–42 weeks. A complete neonatal examination was performed by the principal investigator and the measurements of the weight, lenght, haed circumference and streached penile length were obtained. Mean penile length and statistically significant difference of penile length (SD) values were calculated. The correlation of mean penile length, period of gestation, birth weight and length were analyzed.

Results: The SPL positively correlated with the length of the baby. There is no statistically significant correlation of birth weight, head circumference and gestational age with the SPL. The mean SPL for term Sri Lankan newborns was 3.03 cm ±0.37 cm and the −2 S.D. value was 2.29 cm.

Recommendations: Since the −2 S.D. of SPL was 2.29 cm, measurements less than this should be considered as micropenis.

Keywords: Stretched penile length (SPL), Neonates, Sri Lankan newborns.