Pediatric hypospadia repair
Hello,
We were recently surprised by my 1year old’s diagnosis of hypospadia. It was discovered during a routine appointment with his pediatrician. He does not have any problems peeing. We had an urology appointment at Kaiser Oakland and surgical repair was suggested and would be done by Dr. Anand Krishnan.
I know every kid and case is different but I’d like to hear about your experience w this procedure or with this doctor. Any kids have this procedure in the preschool age vs <2yr old?
Thanks!
Mar 8, 2020
Parent Replies
Is it the type of hypospadias where the urethral meatus is located just down the shaft a little bit? Glandular or Subcoronal? If you want a second opinion, Kaiser will pay for you to get one from UCSF, where you can see Dr. Larry Baskin (leading pediatric urologist in the Bay Area) or Dr. Hillary Copp. They are primarily at Mission Bay but may also see patients at Benioff Children's Oakland (both UCSF now). They will give you the low-down re: need for surgery and optimal timing. I believe Dr. Anand Krishnan did his Pediatric Urology fellowship at UCSF, so he would have trained w/ Dr. Baskin. Best of luck!
Hi!
My son went through hypospadias repair surgery at 1 year at kaiser Oakland with Dr. Krishnan. My little one had a mild case and surgery went well (Dr. Krishnan was great). Overall surgery only took about 2 hours and we were home the same day. The next week was really challenging though—caring for a hurting infant with a catheter is no joke. But he was back to normal within a week. I’m guessing if they only recently discovered your son’s hypospadias he must have a very mild case (my son was diagnosed at birth). Happy to answer any questions (I definitely wrestled with the decision on whether surgery was the right thing to do).
Our now 6 year old was born with sub-glanular hypospadia, a hooded foreskin, and a mild chordee. I state the specifics right away, since the term hypospadia covers a very broad range, and the severeness and effect on "functionality", can be quite different. Even with the urethra exit being located juster under the glans, we see it as a mild form.
We spent a lot of time in 2014 on medical research, and talking to grown up man with this condition, via facebook groups. At that time, we decided to not have it corrected. For several reasons, but the main one being, that we felt it is a purely cosmetic surgery in our case. A surgery, which is executed on the most sensitive organ, and who's long term effects (beyond 15+ years) is not researched. And a surgery, which — at our time — still had a high risk of follow up surgeries.
Today, our six year old is healthy, and has no limitations in his daily life.
I just wanted to share this perspective. Again, every case is different, and has to be assessed differently.