Timing of adverse events among voluntary medical male circumcision clients: Implications from routine service delivery in Zimbabwe

Background: Timing of routine follow-up visits after adult male circumcision (MC) differs by country and method. Most men do not attend all routine follow-up visits. This cross-sectional study aimed to further understanding of AE timing within a large-scale, routine, MC program to improve patient safety. Methods: From 2013–2017, ZAZIC consortium performed 192,575 MCs in Zimbabwe; the reported adverse event (AE) rate was 0.3%. Three scheduled, routine, follow-up visits intend to identify AEs. For surgical MC, visits were days 2, 7 and 42 post-procedure. For PrePex (device-based), visits were days 7, 14 and 49. Descriptive statistics explored characteristics of those patients with AEs. For each MC method, chi-square tests were used to evaluate associations between AE timing (days from MC to AE diagnosis) and factors of interest (age, AE type, severity). Results: Of 421 AEs, 290 (69%) were surgical clients: 55 (19%) AEs were ≤2 days post-MC; 169 (58%) between 3–7 days; 47 (16%) between days 8–14; and 19 (7%) were ≥15 post-MC. Among surgical clients, bleeding was most common AE on/before Day 2 while infections predominated in other follow-up periods (p