Post-operative use of human chorionic gonadotrophin (u-hCG) inpatients treated for intrabdominal unilateral undescended testes.

OBJECTIVE: To report our experience with post-operative use of human chorionic gonadotrophin to achieve higher testicular volume and function, respect to untreated patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective study was done using subjects who underwent orchidopexy between Sptember 2010 and September 2016 for unilateral intrabdominal undescended testes. All patients were treated by the same surgeon with laparoscopic one-stage Fowler-Stephens technique. After surgery (2 weeks) those patient parents who accepted to use hormonal therapy, had to follow a 6 weeks scheme. Patients received subcutaneous 500 UI (Gonasi-HP) weekly. A follow-up was performed at the end of therapy and 6 months later. Testicular volume was measured at each visit by ultrasound and by sonoelastography and compared with the untreated ones.

RESULTS: Forty-five patients were enrolled and treated with a mean age of 18.0±9.7 months. 32 patients received post-operative hormonal therapy. There were no cases of adverse effects nor droupout. All patients completed follow-up. There were no cases of testicular atrophy in both groups. At 6 months among treated patients 26 (81%) subjects achieved normal testicular size while the other had still smaller volume. Among untreated patients, 6 (46%) subject achieved normal testicular size (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Despite the role of hormonal therapy is still under discussion, especially for post-operative treatment, our results suggest that it is safe and useful to improve testicular volume and morphology; treated testes have also a good stiffness respect to untreated testes.