EDITORIAL COMMENTS

Re: Urethral Meatus and Glanular Closure Line: Normal Biometrics and Clinical Significance

This article presents an assessment of ventral glans closure and meatal opening measurements which could serve as an objective measure for cosmetic reconstruction of the glans in boys during hypospadias surgery. Although 
the idea was addressed previously, the article is interesting in that the evaluation was performed in a population 
of Middle Eastern boys, aged 0.6 to 13 years. In addition, the results were comparable to the previous studies held 
in Western countries.(1) As indicated in the study, the measurements evolve during course of normal development 
in the patients. Moreover, it would be particularly interesting to observe similar studies in circumcised boys and 
in those with specific conditions such as meatal stenosis addressing the possible alterations of the aforementioned 
measurements and ratio. We believe that glans size/circumference is correlated with meatal vertical opening and 
glanular closure line as well, therefore glans size/circumference is expected to be considered in further investiga-
tions.

REFERENCES
 1. Hutton KA, Babu R. Normal anatomy of the external urethral meatus in boys: implications for hypospadias 

repair. BJU Int. 2007;100:161-3.

Pediatric Urology and Regenerative Medicine Research Center, Children's Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical 
Sciences, Tehran, Iran
*Correspondence: Pediatric Urology and Regenerative Medicine Research Center, Children's Medical Center, Tehran Uni-
versity of Medical Sciences, No.62, Dr. Gharib's Street, Keshavarz Boulevard, Tehran, Iran.
P.O. Box: 1419733151
Tel: + 98-21-66565400. Fax: + 98-21-66565500. Email: kajbafzd@tums.ac.ir.

Abdol-Mohammad Kajbafzadeh*, Behnam Nabavizadeh

Editorial Comments   300



Vol 15 No 05   September-October 2018  301

REPLY BY AUTHORS

Re: Urethral Meatus and Glanular Closure Line: Normal Biometrics and Clinical Significance

Thanks a lot for your comment and interest in this article. We do agree with you that studying the meatal length/Glanular closure line ratio has a high potential to objectively assess the severity of meatal stenosis which so 
far does not have any consensus in its definition. Moreover, we showed that the two components of this ratio do 
correlate with the age of the patients while finding another link with other penile anthropometric measurements 
like the glans size or penile shaft length might be of great significance. 
We believe that hypospadias surgery should keep the momentum towards perfection and every effort should be 
spent to reach the “normal” looking penis in an objectively, reproducible as well as easily applicable way. 

Thanks

Tariq O Abbas
Hamad General Hospital, Pediatric Surgery Department, Pediatric Surgery Department, Hamad General Hospital, Doha, QATAR. 
Tel: (+974) 55093651; Email: tariq2c@hotmail.com.