No abstract

No abstract

The treatment of undescended testes in infancy and childhood, and the timing of treatment have been reviewed recently by Johnston (1965) and by the Brit. med. J. (1965). From a practical point of view, it is important to know, (1) the incidence of undescended testes in the newbom, and (2) the spontaneous alterations in position of the testes during infancy and childhood. With regard to the first of these questions, we have reported an incidence of undescended testes at birth of 17% among premature and 1 8% among full-term boys (Buemann, Henriksen, Villumsen, Westh, and Zachau-Christiansen, 1961). These figures are similar to those reported by Scorer (1957).The aim of the present paper is to report spontaneous alterations in the position of testes, during the first 3 years of life, among 4,500 boys who are included in the Copenhagen University Hospital investigation of the influence of pregnancy and delivery upon the health and development of the child. MethodThe children were examined by a paediatrician on the first and fifth day of life. At the age of 1 and 3 years, they were invited for a re-examination in the hospital's out-patient clinic. Of the boys, 67% were seen at the 1-year examination, and about 50% at the 3-year examination. Only those boys who were thus examined are included in this study.Only after a painstaking attempt to get a testis which was not immediately palpable down into the scrotum was it considered to be undescended.

No abstract