The Gomco circumcision clamp is a metal device that medical practitioners use to perform circumcision, or the removal of the foreskin of the penis. Created in 1934 by Hiram S. Yellen, a physician who studied obstetrics and gynecology, and inventor Aaron A. Goldstein, the Gomco clamp was one of the first and, as of 2025, is the most commonly used circumcision clamp in the United States. To use the Gomco clamp, the medical practitioner first separates the foreskin from the glans, or head, of the penis, then places the foreskin into the clamp. The practitioner tightens the clamp, which crushes a thin, circular ribbon of foreskin, and then cuts off the remaining foreskin above the crushed portion. The Gomco clamp reduces the risk of blood loss, controls the amount of foreskin removed, protects the glans of the penis during circumcision, and allows for a clean surgical cut. By simplifying the surgical procedure of circumcision and reducing the risk of complications, the Gomco clamp helped to institutionalize routine, non-therapeutic infantile circumcision as part of the childbirth process in US hospitals.

In 1870, Lewis Albert Sayre, an orthopedic surgeon, published “Partial Paralysis from Reflex Irritation, Caused by Congenital Phimosis and Adherent Prepuce,” hereafter “Partial Paralysis,” in the journal Transactions of the American Medical Association. In the article, Sayre describes using circumcision, or surgical removal of the prepuce, or foreskin, of the penis, to treat muscle paralysis in several young male patients. While circumcision has a long history as a religious and cultural practice, “Partial Paralysis” was one of the first articles to articulate a medical reason for performing circumcision. Sayre reports that each of his patients were experiencing muscle paralysis or hip joint pain and also had phimosis, a condition in which the foreskin tightly encases head of the penis, or adherent prepuce, a condition in which the foreskin fuses to the head of the penis. Suspecting a connection between the conditions, Sayre circumcised each patient and concluded that circumcision cured the boys’ medical problems. While doctors no longer use circumcision to treat muscle paralysis or hip pain, the medical justification for circumcision that Sayre articulates in “Partial Paralysis” helped to popularize its use among physicians at the end of the nineteenth century in the US.