Laparoscopic management of the undescended testicle

Abstract

The role of laparoscopy with regards to the undescended testicle has been hotly debated since the late 1970s and early 1980s when it was realized that the abdominal testicle could be visualized with the laparoscope. Many enthusiastically embraced the laparoscope for diagnosis and localization of the impalpable undescended testicle, whereas others staunchly maintained that laparoscopy was overly invasive and really facilitated little with regards to orchidopexy. Diagnostic laparoscopy, when compared with the other modalities, holds its own well with regards to accuracy and efficacy. In the early 1990s, the role of laparoscopy expanded to include performance of orchidopexy. It would be naive to believe that the debate cooled with the evolution of laparoscopic orchidopexy. Over the years, since introduction of the operation, there have been many institutions that have examined the role of laparoscopic orchidopexy quite critically. In many people's minds, laparoscopic orchidopexy is a clear competitor to open orchidopexy for the impalpable undescended abdominal testicle; in a few people's minds, it has become the gold standard.