RESEARCH ARTICLE
Evaluation of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) Therapeutic Results in Patients With Unilateral cryptorchidism (Undescended Testis)
Farzaneh Sharifiaghdas1, Sepideh Sharifiaghdas2, Esmaeil R. Maleki1, Behzad Narouie3, *, Abdolsamad Shikhzadeh1, Sarvenaz Mehrabi4
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2020Volume: 13
First Page: 13
Last Page: 17
Publisher ID: TOUNJ-13-13
DOI: 10.2174/1874303X02013010013
Article History:
Received Date: 03/12/2019Revision Received Date: 09/03/2020
Acceptance Date: 10/03/2020
Electronic publication date: 23/05/2020
Collection year: 2020
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Cryptorchidism or undescended testis is an evolutionary defect where one or both testes fail to descend into the scrotum. HCG causes the testes to fail, possibly due to weight gain, an increase in testicular vasculature, and stimulating the testosterone and di-hydro-testosterone. The present study has been conducted to evaluate the therapeutic effects of HCG on patients with unilateral cryptorchidism.
Methods:
In a prospective descriptive study, 211 patients of 8 months to 7 years old with unilateral cryptorchidism whose parents refused surgery received HCG therapy. The patients were followed up 1 month, 3months, and 12 months after the first injection. They were examined in terms of the location of testes, possible relapses, sides of undescended testes, treatment complications, and HCG therapeutic results.
Results:
Four weeks after the first injection, 160 patients (75.12%) out of 211 cases had the descent of testes into the inguinal canal and the scrotum. 69.5% of non-palpable abdominal testes descended into the inguinal canal, 69.7% of patients with inguinal testes, 78% of patients with supra inguinal testes and 100% of patients with retractile testis experienced the descent of testes into the scrotum.
Conclusion:
The therapeutic response to HCG was successful in more than 50% of the cases in all the groups. Therefore, the need for performing surgical procedures on children with unilateral cryptorchidism would be decreased and they can be treated by a cost-effective and less invasive method. Moreover, at least one-year follow-up of the patients is required to ensure outcomes of the treatment.
