We were recently given a memo at the ltc facility I work at about proper peri care. On the male side they had listed the following:
DO NOT pull back the foreskin on uncircumcised males.
What do you all think of this? Everyone at my facility is in shock, what other way is there to clean this area? We all know you have to be careful that you pull the foreskin back after cleaning, but if no one gets cleaned under this...:uhoh21:
i thought i had heard/read some where....that some very elderly men lose the ability to retract the foreskin...but cant find doc. to cite......did find a lot of interesting things.......some feel part of the lack of care is simply do to the "intimate" nature, (not)....the unfamiliarity ......and some feel that it is actually too much "care" too much soap and too much friction....i would think that a whirl pool bath....maybe a "sitz" type arrangement with plain warm water....would be about right.....some even suggest "irrigating" under the foreskin, esp if it truly WONT retract.....
I've heard of phimosis but that usually is corrected early in life. I have never encountered an elderly man with a non retractable foreskin, if anything it seems to get more loose with age.
I don't think the foreskin needs retracting and cleaning after every urination...it only needs doing once a day (more if its covered in poo) so I don't see the big deal...pull it back, clean it off, put it back. 3 seconds, done and done.
I've heard of phimosis but that usually is corrected early in life. I have never encountered an elderly man with a non retractable foreskin, if anything it seems to get more loose with age.
I don't think the foreskin needs retracting and cleaning after every urination...it only needs doing once a day (more if its covered in poo) so I don't see the big deal...pull it back, clean it off, put it back. 3 seconds, done and done.
what i had found in my googling, was that phimosis was commonly caused by scarring.....and can occur in the elderly.....a very small % of men have foreskins that dont ever retract....according to what i found.....and doesnt appear to cause a problem
Perhaps this is why we constantly get LTC patients admitted to the hospital who have raging infections under their foreskins. I've always thought that shoddy care was to blame, and never once thought it was possible that it was policy instead. I will certainly keep that in mind next time I get one of these!
Seems like it would make more sense to teach people the right way to do it instead of avoiding it entirely. Then again, we are talking about management here, right?
what i had found in my googling, was that phimosis was commonly caused by scarring.....and can occur in the elderly.....a very small % of men have foreskins that dont ever retract....according to what i found.....and doesnt appear to cause a problem
morte, LPN, LVN
7,015 Posts
i thought i had heard/read some where....that some very elderly men lose the ability to retract the foreskin...but cant find doc. to cite......did find a lot of interesting things.......some feel part of the lack of care is simply do to the "intimate" nature, (not)....the unfamiliarity ......and some feel that it is actually too much "care" too much soap and too much friction....i would think that a whirl pool bath....maybe a "sitz" type arrangement with plain warm water....would be about right.....some even suggest "irrigating" under the foreskin, esp if it truly WONT retract.....