Investigation of the role of ultrasonography in diagnosis and treatment of undescended testis

Abstract

Some studies emphasized the usefulness of ultrasound in measuring the testicles, but some studies reported the opposite results. Also, most of the studies focused on diagnosing the location of the testicles, and many of them had contradictory results, and our study aims to resolve this contradiction. In addition, no study focused on undescended testicle size, and the studies that did exist examined scrotal testicle size. In a number of patients, there is a discrepancy between what is stated in the ultrasound about the testicle size and the reality. In this study, we decided to investigate the sonographic size and position of undescended testis and compare it with direct measurement. Method: All patients diagnosed with undescended testicles who undergo orchiopexy surgery at the urology service of Mardani Azar Hospital will be included in the study. All patients will undergo a clinical examination by a pediatric urologist and ultrasound by a radiologist. The results obtained from surgery (inguinal exploration or laparoscopy) will be compared with the results of examination and ultrasound. The number of patients will be based on the census of patients included in the study in this period of time, and our estimate is about 60 patients. Statistical methods will be used to compare the state of examination and ultrasound of the undescended testicle with its final state. The significance level of p value 0.05 was considered. Results: In this study, 58 male patients with an average age of 34.6 months (with a confidence interval of 43.51 - 25.69) were included in the study. Among these, 51 patients had UDT in only one testicle and seven patients had bilateral UDT. In the survey conducted to determine the size of the testicle, the average size of the testicle by ultrasound method was 14.7 mm (confidence interval: 15.62 - 13.78). Also, in the direct examination during surgery (with one missing data), the average size was estimated to be 13.41 (confidence interval 12.64-14.18). In the comparison made by the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed ranks test, the measurements were significantly different (p value < 0.001) and the measurements taken by ultrasound were larger than the direct measurements.