Pre-pubertal labial adhesion surgery: The first study to compare manual or surgical separation

Abstract

Aim: Labial adhesion (LA) is one of the most common causes of admission to the pediatric surgery outpatient clinic among the prepubertal girls. There is no consensus on the best interventional technique (manual or surgical separation) for LA. The aim of this study is to compare the results of the manual and surgical separation of LA, and to decide which one is superior. Material and Methods: We reviewed the medical records of sixty-six patients with LA operated between July 2016 and Mart 2018 by the same surgeon. The patients were divided into two groups: patients treated with a manual separation technique (group 1) and with a surgical separation technique (group 2). Patients were evaluated regarding age at presentation, referral indication, symptoms, surgical technique, recurrence and time of recurrence. Results: There were 27 cases in Group 1 and 39 cases in Group 2. There were 14 recurrences in Group 1 (51.8%) and 5 recurrences in Group 2 (12.8%). The recurrence rate was significantly higher in Group 1. This difference between groups was statistically significant (p=0.0006). The relative risk for recurrence in Group 1 was found to be 4.0444 (OR 7.3231; p=0.0012), and 0.2473 in Group 2 with a significance level of p=0.0022. Conclusion: The treatment of labial adhesion with the surgical separation technique is superior to manual separation in terms of the possibility of recurrence. Additional prospective studies are still needed to strengthen these data.