Hypospadias

Hypospadias

Signs and Symptoms
Diagnosis
Treatment

Treatment

Surgery is the only treatment available to correct hypospadias. We recommend that these operations be performed between 6 and 15 months of age.

Often, repair can be achieved in a single one- to three-hour operation as an outpatient at UCSF's outpatient surgery center.

If you live outside of the San Francisco Bay Area, we will help make arrangements to spend the nights before and after the surgery at a local hotel so you can call us should any immediate problems arise.

If you have California Children Services (CCS) approval, the agency will help to pay for the accommodations.

The goal of surgical correction is to reconstruct a straight penis with a urethral opening as close to the tip of the penis as possible. This will result in a properly directed urinary stream, straightened penis upon erection and an appearance similar to a circumcised penis.

The surgery is performed under general anesthesia and often your child will be admitted and discharged from the hospital on the same day.

About half of the cases involve the more complicated hypospadias repairs, which requires a catheter to be left in the bladder to drain the urine for seven to 10 days. The surgery requires anywhere from one to three hours depending on the severity of the hypospadias.

For more information about the care of your child after surgery, read our Post-Operative Instructions

Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Children's Hospital.
Last updated May 15, 2007