Vytautas Bilius, Otilija Kutanovaitė, Darius Dasevičius, Albertas Puzinas, Augustina Jankauskienė, Gilvydas Verkauskas
Abstract
Objectives. To compare the risk of infertility in boys operated for cryptorchidism at different ages. Patients and methods. Thirty patients with unilateral undescended testis underwent orchidopexy and were subjected to ipsilateral testicular biopsy from 2010 to 2012 in department of Pediatric Urology, Children‘s Hospital, Affiliate of Vilnius University Hospital Santariskiu klinikos. Biopsies were fixed in 2% glutaraldehyde, stained with toluidine blue, sectioned and analyzed by lightmicroscopy at 400× magnification. The number of Ad spermatogonia was assessed. Patients were classified into 2 groups according to their age: I–<2 years of age, II – ≥2 years of age. There were 14 boys in group I and 16 boys in group II. Median age in group I was 1.47 year, and 6.91 years in group II. Results. Adult dark spermatogonia was found in the biopsies of 14 (46.6%) patients with a count 0.09-0.86 Adult dark spermatogonia per tubule. Adult dark spermatogonia were absent in 16 (53.3%) biopsies of cryptorchid boys: 5 in group I, and 11 in group II. Patients with no Ad spermatogonia had a lower tubular density. Conclusions. The best results of testicular histology were in group 1. These boys had lower risk of infertility . Data of our biopsies support the idea of progressive domage to germ cell development with increasing age. This is alarming and emphasizes the need of improvement for the treatment of cryptorchidism and children examinations.
Keyword(s): cryptorchidism, infertility, orchidopexy, dark spermatogonia
DOI: 10.5200/386
Full Text: PDF