Long time follow-up for patients with testicular torsion: new findings.

Abstract

Background: Testicular torsion is the major urologic emergency. If not treated promptly, this condition can result in testicular necrosis or long-term functional impairment. At present, there are few paper about long time follow-up of these patients. The primary objective of our study is to report the long-term clinical-instrumental data (mean follow-up 12 years) of patients treated for testicular torsion.

Methods: We considered patients treated for testicular torsion during the period between 1997 and 2017. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were created. Patients were contacted by phone between December 2021 and January 2022. Each patient underwent clinical and ultrasonographic evaluation, and in addition, some subjects were offered additional tests (hormonal assays and semen analysis).

Results: During the study period, 22 patients were treated for testicular torsion. From the ultrasonographic study, it was found that the volume of the affected testis is reduced and it is associated with microcalcifications and heterogeneous echogenicity. Morphovolumetric recovery seems to be more related to age of onset than to the degree of torsion.

Conclusions: Based on our results we can state that affected testes, if preserved, grow less and have altered ultrasonographic morphology. Clinically, the age of onset of torsion seems more important than the degree of torsion.