Penile trauma burden and aetiology in the paediatric and adult population: A scoping review and critical analysis of the literature

Abstract

Penile trauma is rare. It is associated with the impairment of physiological functions and deterioration in patients’ quality of life. Currently, the relevance of age demographics in the occurrence of this debilitating injury has not been well discussed. The objective of this study was to provide a scoping review of penile trauma within the lens of the legal age of maturity. A search of the PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases was conducted, and then, the identified publications were used to conduct this scoping review focussing on the study aim. The results identified were categorised into five themes. This included publication information (author, year, country, study duration); demographic information (age of presentation, number of patients, relative burden); penile trauma clinical pattern (type, severity, associated injury), risk factors and clinical consequences. While mobile and active young adults were at risk of outdoor trauma, the report on penile trauma in the paediatric population is rare and usually focussed on sexual trauma. Penetrating trauma has been more extensively studied in comparison to blunt penile trauma despite the significance of the latter in the paediatric population. Injury severity classification is not available for most studies limiting their usefulness in the universal comparison of trauma severity and injury prognostication. There is a diversity in the burden and presentation of penile trauma. Available research studies are limited in the paediatric population, mostly focussed on penile fracture in adults and generally devoid of a standardised penile trauma severity description. Additional studies with a specific focus on penile trauma are required to characterise aetiological risks and injury severity across the legal age of maturity.