Israeli Doctor Fixes Botched Circumcision on Muslim Man

JERUSALEM (Feb. 23) -- Jews and Arabs aren't always at war. A Jewish Israeli doctor reports he was able to correct a botched circumcision on a Muslim man.

Professor Yaron Har-Shai, head of the plastic surgery department at Haifa's Carmel Medical Center, said he used a technique developed to treat hand and facial burns to lengthen and rehabilitate the organ of a 20-year-old patient identified as Ibrahim, a Muslim from northern Israel.

Two years earlier, Ibrahim underwent a failed circumcision that left him with a shortened penis and unable to have sexual relations. When she heard the news, his fiancee abandoned him. Distraught, Ibrahim finally turned to Har-Shai.

Har-Shai told the Jerusalem Post that he used the "flap technique-5" procedure, which was developed by his father, professor Bernard Hirshowitz, to help burn victims suffering from hand and facial injuries. It has been effective in helping webbed skin between fingers become flexible after a burn that caused shrinking.

Har-Shai created five flaps from small bits of skin left on the man's penis itself. After the procedure, the man's penis measured 11 centimeters (4.3 inches), 8 centimeters (3.1 inches) longer than it was after the botched circumcision. His erections also returned.

Har-Shai and his colleagues at Carmel Center have just published their report in the Britain's Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, which also shows "before" and "after" photos. He said it is the first time this technique has been used to correct the problem.

While most Jews undergo circumcision at eight days, and most Muslims at age 13, Ibrahim waited until 18, apparently because he came from a secular family and didn't think it was important. According to The Jerusalem Post, the practitioner botched the job and cut off ventral penile skin, a complication that occurs in 0.2 percent of circumcisions.

Surgeons in other countries trying to treat similar problems have taken skin from other parts of a patient's body and transplanted it onto the penis, but the procedure was not successful, and the penis became too small to allow for intercourse.

This is the first report of such a complication in Israel, even though some 50,000 ritual circumcisions are performed on Jews and Arabs every year. Har-Shai said the technique could also be used on baby boys if they are born with unusually small penises.

For Ibrahim, the story has a happy ending. He is now engaged again and hopes to be married soon.

But not all of The Jerusalem Post's readers were happy with the story. "Much too much information!" wrote one reader. "Anyone stop reading in the middle?" wrote another. My favorite: "PEACE is spelled PENIS."