Bilateral undescended testes

Abstract

The management of boys with undescended testes appears to be an increasingly common problem. While Scorer (1964) [11] reported an incidence of 0.8% of undescended testes in boys of one year of age, a recent survey (Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, 1986) [18] suggests the incidence has risen to as high as 1.6%. While the etiology may be varied, it is quite clear that many cases represent disturbances of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis and may represent a forme fruste of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism [3]. Bilateral undescended testes might logically appear to represent the worst end of such an endocrinopathy. Indeed, a review of the experience at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia [12] of boys with bilateral undescended testes indicated a greater number of CNS abnormalities (P = 0.0000) than in boys with unilateral undescended testes (Table 1). Also consistent with bilateral cryptorchid testes representing the most severe end of the spectrum was the reported findings from that study that bilateral undescended testes also exhibit a significantly greater number of associated G-U anomalies (P = 0.0004).