[The surgical management of undescended testis between 6 and 12 months: A difficult message to convey]

Abstract

Purpose: The undescended testis (UT) is the most common congenital malformation of the genital apparatus in male infants. The main objective of the management of these patients is to reduce the risk of infertility and cancer. Since these risks increase with age of operation, learned societies have recommended earlier intervention. Following the publication in 2007 of the Nordic consensus that called for an intervention between 6 and 12 months of age, we issued this message to medical students in the Lower Normandy region of France. The aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation of this teaching through the evolution of the number of children operated between 6 and 12 months for a congenital UT in our center.

Material and methods: Between 2005 and 2014, we evaluated the yearly percentage of children operated for UT between 6 and 12 months compared to the percentage of children operated on between 12 and 24 months. A statistical study using the Chi(2) test was used to compare the 2005-2008 and 2009-2012 periods.

Results: The percentage of children operated on between 6 and 12 months of age increased from 13.7 % between 2005 and 2008 to 17.2 % between 2009 and 2014. From 2012 on, the number of children operated on between 6 and 12 months was consistently higher than the number of children operated on between 12 and 24 months. The proportion of children operated beyond 2 years remained stable over the study period.

Conclusion: Since we implemented teaching of early surgery for children with UT, we have observed a gradual increase in the number of children operated between 6 and 12 months of age. Nevertheless, there are still many children operated between 12 and 24 months and beyond.