Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the clinical and histopathological results of adult unilateral cryptorchidism patients.

Material and methods: Data from adult unilateral cryptorchidism patients that underwent orchiectomy in our clinic between between January 2004 and March 2013 were retrospectively evaluated. Patients were divided into three groups as intra-abdominal, inguinal canal and superficial inguinal region according to the location of the undescended testes. Patients were also grouped according to their testicular volume (<4 cc, 4.1-12 cc, and >12 cc). Histopathology results of orchiectomy specimens were classified as follows: 1. Sertoli cells only, testicular atrophy and vanished testis (anorchia) 2. Hypospermatogenesis, and 3. Maturation arrest. Patients were grouped as normospermia, azoospermia and oligo/astheno/teratospermia groups according to semen analysis results. Correlations between testicular localization, testicular size, semen analysis and pathology results were evaluated. Incidental tumor detection rates were also calculated.

Results: Two hundred and forty-four adult unilateral cryptorchidism patients underwent orchiectomy in our clinic. There was no significant relationship between location of the testis and testicular pathology results (p=0.707). Most common semen analysis results was normospermia in patients with high testicular volume group however azoospermia and oligoasthenospermia observed commonly in patients with low testicular volume group. There was a significant relationship between testicular volume and semen analysis results (p=0.023). No significant relationship was observed between semen analysis and pathological results (p=0.929). After an evaluation of all factors with possible effects on the semen analysis results, only testicular volume (p=0.036) was found to have a significant impact. Only one case (0.4%) was incidentally diagnosed seminoma after a review of 233 patients with available histopathological results on record.

Conclusion: Adult unilateral cryptorchidism has a minimal effect on male fertility or even this effect can be overlooked. Low detection rates of incidental germ cell tumors also make an orchiectomy decision questionable in such cases.