L’agglutinazione delle piccole labbra nelle bambine [Adhesion of the labia minora in children]

Vulvar agglutination or vulva connivens in childhood is a common disease and an important source of anxiety for parents. The Authors report on the anatomic classification, the etiology and the prevalence of this genital anomaly in the pediatric age. In the 2021 patients of our series examined in the Department of Pediatrics in Poggibonsi and in the Department of Pediatric Surgery of the University of Siena during a period of 7 years and revisited in the period between January 1995 and December 1996 (follow-up: max 7 years) no cases were observed in the first month of life (793 newborn infants) and this fact might help to exclude a congenital origin. The incidence of vulvar agglutination in 1228 children was 9.8%; in the 3.6% of cases vulvar agglutination was complete, while in the 6.1% it was incomplete. 60% of complete vulvar adhesions were in 3-6 years old patients, while the incomplete one was prevalent during the first 3 years of life. In our series vulvar adhesion was more common than in other studies, but the Author report no cases of correlated urinary or genital infections. It is important to reassure parents and to maintain a conservative approach to this anomaly. Estrogen therapy in this study was applied only in a few cases, because almost all the patients healed before puberty; the surgical division was applied only in case of recurrence.