Original ArticleThe value of finding a closed internal ring on laparoscopy in unilateral nonpalpable testis
Section snippets
Methods
Between February 2007 and January 2012, both laparoscopy and subsequent extra-abdominal exploration were prospectively performed in consecutive patients with unilateral NPT. Ethical approval was obtained for the study from the institutional review board. To avoid the bias of knowing the diagnostic imaging findings, unilateral NPT was diagnosed before any diagnostic imaging was done. Although most patients underwent ultrasonographic measurement of the contralateral descended testis, no cutoff
Results
During the study period, 101 patients with unilateral NPT were enrolled. These children were all patients seen with a unilateral NPT between February 2007 and January 2012 in our institution. One patient who did not have open exploration with laparoscopic findings of intra-abdominal vanishing vessels was excluded from the analysis. The remaining 100 patients were evaluated. With respect to the laterality of the NPT, 25 were on the right side, and 75 were on the left side. The mean patient age
Discussion
Laparoscopy is now widely performed in patients with NPT for both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. Although the value of laparoscopy for an abdominal testis is well recognized, there is ongoing debate about whether initial laparoscopy is as efficient as initial extra-abdominal exploration for unilateral NPT [7], [8], [9]. The majority of children with unilateral NPT have a testicular nubbin in the scrotum detected simply by scrotal exploration [10]. These nubbins
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2022, Journal of Pediatric SurgeryCitation Excerpt :If no testis is found at the time of exploration, should the nubbin be resected? For these questions, there were 168 studies obtained from the initial search and 18 were added after further review; 130 total studies were found to be suitable for inclusion [18,115–224 Published guidelines regarding choice of operation are as follows: American Urological Association 2014 [1]
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