Testicular volume at puberty in boys with congenital cryptorchidism randomised to treatment at different ages

Infographic · Jul 2024 · 1 min read

In brief

Randomized trial comparing orchidopexy timing (9 vs 36 months) in boys with congenital cryptorchidism found earlier surgery resulted in better testicular growth at puberty, though volumes remained below normal counterparts. Even spontaneously descended testes showed impaired growth, supporting early surgical intervention.

Orchidopexy at 9 months results in significantly better testicular growth at puberty compared to surgery at 3 years of age.
Even with early surgery at 9 months, cryptorchid testes do not achieve the same volume as their normally descended counterparts by age 16.
Spontaneous postnatal testicular descent is associated with impaired testicular growth compared to normally descended testes.
Earlier surgical intervention (9 months vs 3 years) is beneficial for long-term testicular development in cryptorchidism.
Testicular volume ratios at age 16 favor the 9-month surgery group over the 3-year group, supporting current early treatment guidelines.

Written by the GCMD Library team from the infographic.

The infographic uses a three-panel layout with a red sidebar on the left containing study metadata. The center panel shows a gray illustration of an infant and testicle with arrows pointing to two surgical timing options. The right panel displays comparative ultrasound results at age 16 with anatomical illustrations of testicles and percentage values. Blue arrows guide the viewer through the timeline from left to right.

New infographic by the Chilean Society of Pediatric Surgeons and Dr. Jose Campos
”Testicular volume at puberty in boys with congenital cryptorchidism randomised to treatment at different ages”

Authors: Claude Kollin, Agneta Nordenskjöld, Martin Ritzén

Full article: https://gcmd.co/3YlqLDO

Aim: To assess testicular volume at puberty for boys who underwent orchidopexy at 9 or at 36 months compared to boys with spontaneous postnatal descent.

Methods: At age 6 months, boys with congenital unilateral cryptorchidism were randomised to surgery at 9 or 39 months of age and followed to 16 years in parallel with boys with spontaneous postnatal descent. Ultrasound was done at 11 and 16 years to determine testicular volume. The ratio of the initially undescended testis to its scrotal counterpart was used to assess testicular growth.

Results: At age 16, the ratio was lower (p < 0.00) in the late group compared to the early group. At 16 years, the spontaneously descended testes were significantly smaller than their scrotal counterparts but larger than the operated groups (early p < 0.01 and late p < 0.00).

Conclusion: Our data at 16 years show that orchidopexy at 9 months results in better testicular growth compared to 3 years but did not reach the corresponding volumes of their scrotal counterparts. This indicates that earlier surgery is beneficial to testicular growth. At age 16, the postnatally descended testes were not only larger than the surgically treated testes but also exhibited impaired testicular growth.

The text in the image