Comparison between circumferential local anesthesia and dorsal penile nerve block in circumcision procedure

Objectives: To compare circumferential local anesthesia and dorsal penile nerve block with regard to pain control during adult circumcision. Materials and Methods: A randomized, controlled clinical trial was conducted and 30 men were randomly assigned into one of the following groups: circumferential local anesthesia (LA) and dorsal penile nerve block (DNB). Patients in both groups were injected with 0.2 ml/kg of 2% lidocaine without epinephrine before circumcision using the different techniques. During the operation, pain score was evaluated in accordance with the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) and the data were compared using the Mann-Whitney test. Results: The patients in the LA group felt more pain than those in the DNB group during anesthetic injection (4.73 vs 3.7, p<0.05) but the pain scores were lower than in the DNB group during the outer prepuce incision (0.47 vs 3.93, p<0.05), inner prepuce incision (0.33 vs 1.47, p<0.05) and incision near/at Frenulum (0.33 vs 4.47, p<0.05). Overall pain score was higher in the dorsal penile nerve block group (1.53 vs 2.6, p <0.05). The circumferential local anesthesia is equally effective through all stages of the circumcision whereas the dorsal penile nerve block was not effective at the ventral surface of penis. Conclusion: For pain control in circumcision, circumferential local anesthesia is more effective than dorsal penile nerve block.