Clinical Findings of Patients Undergone Surgery for Testicular Torsion: A 12-Year Single Center Experience in Northern Iran

Introduction: Testicular torsion is a surgical emergency which requires early diagnosis and prompt surgical management to avoid testicular damage. The aim of this study is to survey the clinical findings and outcome of the patients treated for testicular torsion in a university hospital in Babol, northern Iran. Methods: In this cross sectional study, a retrospective survey of all cases presenting with acute scrotum and primarily diagnosed as testicular torsion was conducted during 2001 and 2012 in Babol, northern Iran. All 103 cases were reviewed and several clinical data, including duration of symptoms and operative findings were collected. Findings: Of 103 patients who presented to the emergency department with acute scrotum, the median age of the cases was 16.0 years. Thirty four percent of the patients presented emergency unit less than 6 hours from symptom exposure. Pain (95.1%) was the major symptom in all patients. Surgery revealed that 72 (70.9%) cases were diagnosed firmly as testicular torsion that 23 patients underwent orchidectomy for a necrotic torsed testis. There were significant differences between orchiectomized versus non-orchiectomized torsion cases in affected side, symptom presentation to operation time. Conclusion: According to our results more than half of the cases presented more than in the golden time. Late presentation to hospital was the major cause of delay leading to orchidectomy in patients with testicular torsion. Greater effort in health education and direct or selfreferal to hospital may reduce this delay.