The influence of patency of the vaginal process on the efficacy of hormonal treatment of cryptorchidism

Abstract

Prior detection of patent vaginal process by inguinal herniography permits identification of a significant subset of patients for whom hormone treatment will be ineffective. Our data suggest that this predictive procedure is 100% reliable.

Perspectives in Pediatric Pathology, Chapter 14. Natural History of Undescended Testes

“…Most cryptorchid patients (62%-90%) have an ipsilateral patent vaginal process [96,97]. This probably enabled the few descents achieved after hormone treatment [98]. Some 34% of patients with unilateral palpable undescended testis have a contralateral patent processus vaginalis [99].…”

Relevance of herniography for accurate diagnosis of patent processus vaginalis in cryptorchidism

“…The prevalence of surgically-determined PPV is evidently expected to be lower in patients undergoing primary surgery than in patients undergoing surgery after failure of hormone treatment, since hormone treatment cannot be effective when the processus vaginalis is patent (6,10,11,17,22). We think that hormone therapy would be useful in avoiding surgery in a group of cryptorchid patients with PV obliterated.…”

“…We carried out a blind, controlled, prospective clinical trial in which all patients underwent inguinal herniography (6). The present work focuses on patency of the processus vaginalis (PPV) in cryptorchidism and investigates relationships with age, position of the testis and type of cryptorchidism.…”