EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY ON UNDESCENDED TESTIS

Although half a century ago doctors believed undescended testis could descend in the scrotum anytime during the childhood up to the beginning of puberty, today it is accepted that both testes should be in the bursae at the time of birth (in 3 – 4% of cases this is not the situation). Otherwise, according to the most authors, one can wait at most one year (incidence drops to 1%), and then, during the second year of life, the testicular descent must be performed, as pathological changes in the undescended testis are visible as early as from the age of two thanks to the improvement of optical microscopy. However, an important number of cases are still diagnosed as late as around puberty, the purpose of this study being to evidence some of the possible causes that lead to this delayed diagnosis, which results in the modification of condition prognosis.