I know this is venturing to off topic.  I wanted to clarify some statements
about who does circumcisions.  There is considerable regional variation in
the US.  Back east, it appears that more OBs than pedis do circumcisions.
Out west, pediatricians, OB's and FPs do circumcision.  I trained in a
pediatric residency program (Kaiser-San Francisco) that was very pro
circumcision.  Both the OB residents and the Pediatric residents shared the
tasks of circumcision clinic.

There are many "surgical things" that pediatricians do.  Some of use do
laceration repairs, put on casts, do incision and drainage on abcesses and
remove foreign bodies from interesting places (noses, hands and feet).  Many
of us have spent countless hours during residency placing lines, intubating
and putting in chest tubes.  Some of us even clip frenulums.  So the
statement that pediatricians (at least in the US) are not trained to do
surgical procedures isn't quite accurate.

Still bemused by the fact that OB's (whose specialty is women's health) do
male circumcision (something that doesn't quite fit into women's health).

For the record I do my circumcisions in the office under local anesthetic in
my office 5-14 days after birth.  I find doing them after two weeks of age to
be a far bloodier procedure.

Thanks in advance for not sending me any "enlightening" posts on why I should
not do circumcision.

Pierrette Mimi Poinsett, MD, FAAP
Modesto CA

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