Prise en charge chirurgicale des testicules non descendus entre 6 et 12 mois : un message long à transmettre

Abstract

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 2007of the Nordic consensus that called for an intervention between 6and 12months 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 6and 12months for a congenital UT in our center. Between 2005and 2014, we evaluated the yearly percentage of children operated for UT between 6and 12months compared to the percentage of children operated on between 12and 24months. A statistical study using the Chi(2)test was used to compare the 2005-2008and 2009-2012periods. The percentage of children operated on between 6and 12months of age increased from 13.7% between 2005and 2008to 17.2% between 2009and 2014. From 2012on, the number of children operated on between 6and 12months was consistently higher than the number of children operated on between 12and 24months. The proportion of children operated beyond 2years remained stable over the study period. Since we implemented teaching of early surgery for children with UT, we have observed a gradual increase in the number of children operated between 6and 12months of age. Nevertheless, there are still many children operated between 12and 24months and beyond.