Introduction: Testicular torsion is the most urgent case in pediatric andrology that requires emergency care due to the high sensitivity of testicular tissue to hypoxia.Objective: To determine statistically significant parameters indicating diagnostic significance of some ultrasonographic testicular torsion symptoms in children.Materials and methods: Ultrasonography was performed in 202 children with testicular torsion (main group) and 449 patients (control group) aged from 2 months to 17 years 11 months and 28 days. During statistical processing we determined the mean values, their standard deviation, sampling errors, significance of differences in the mean values, correlation coefficient and did ROC analysis. For an objective ultrasonographic assessment of testicular shape, we implemented the coefficient of rounding – ko = (testicular length – testicular thickness) / testicular length – and the parameter Δko calculated as the difference between ko for the affected side and the contralateral one.Results and discussion: Testicular torsion was more common in children above 12 years of age (84.7%). The ko was 0.160 ± 0.007 in the group of children with testicular torsion and 0.037±0.003 in the control group (t = 16.92, p >> .001). The ROC analysis proved the Δko to be highly informative: AUC was 0.886. The Δko was 0.130 ± 0.008 for patients with favorable treatment outcomes and 0.19 ± 0.01 (p < 0.001) for those with unfavorable outcomes. In most cases (71), the whirlpool sign was visualized with preserved blood flow. In such a case, the probability of the favorable treatment outcome was 74.6%. The whirlpool sign visualization was significantly less common (31 cases) without Doppler ultrasonography; favorable treatment outcomes were achieved in 54.8%. Of 22 patients with the undetected whirlpool sign, favorable treatment outcomes were possible only in 40.9%.Conclusions: The coefficient of rounding ko can be used as an auxiliary criterion for the early diagnosis of testicular torsion. With Δko = 0.08, the sensitivity of the parameter in respect of testicular torsion is 79.2%, and specificity is 85.7%. With Δko = 0.16, the specificity of the parameter is almost 100% with a 45.0% decrease of the sensitivity. Whirlpool sign detection using color Doppler ultrasonography is a positive prognostic factor.

Epididymal cysts in children are rare, and, as a rule, their detection is an incidental finding, the course is asymptomatic, the surgical treatment is not carried out. Isolated torsion of these cysts is extremely rare in both children and adults, causing acute pain syndrome and swelling of the scrotum. Due to its rarity and lack of specificity of clinical and echographic manifestations, this condition leads to a delay in the accurate diagnosis of the disease, which is carried out only intraoperatively. The rare case of combined testicular torsion and torsion of a large appendage cyst in a 12-year-old teenager is presented in the publication.

Testicular torsion is a severe variant of postnatal gonad pathology in children. The speed of development of irreversible ischemic disorders determines not only the medical, but also the social significance of the problem and determines the need for accurate and rapid diagnosis and prompt provision of adequate care to the patient. The only objective method for diagnosing testicular torsion in children is ultrasound. At the same time, the characteristics of the child’s body: the small size of the object of study, low rates of intratesticular blood flow and restless behavior during the study sharply reduce the diagnostic value of the Doppler study or make it technically impossible. Thus, seroshkal ultrasound is the first stage of diagnosis of this complex emergency pathology, based on the results of which it is possible to diagnose testicular torsion with great accuracy. The publication summarizes our own experience of 110 echographic observations of postnatal testicular torsion in children older than 2 months, all cases were verified intraoperatively. A quantitative method for estimating the deformity of a twisted testicle is proposed and its statistical reliability is proved. The options presented for gray-scale changes in the structure of damaged gonads and determined their prognostic significance. The publication contains a review of the literature and is extensively illustrated.

The diagnostic significance of the color Doppler study of testicular blood flow in testicular torsion has been studied for about 40 years, however, the prognostic value of the results obtained is ambiguous, as are the actual imaging capabilities of the technique. Our own experience of 110 observations of testicular torsion in children older than the neonatal period allows us to draw statistically reliable conclusions. Made on equipment premium-class research made it possible to evaluate how visualization intratesticular vascular pattern, and whirpool-sign and submit the primitive model of the actual inversion, explaining the impossibility of rendering whirpool-sign with the greatest tight inversion. The dynamics of testicular blood flow was studied immediately after successful and unsuccessful manual detorsion and in the long term after operative detorsion and orchopexy. The publication contains a brief analysis of the literature and is extensively illustrated.