The effect of intratesticular dexpanthenol on experimentally-induced testicular ischaemia/reperfusion injury.

Summary Introduction Testis torsion is a urological emergency and a serious situation that may cause testis atrophy, testicular dysfunction and infertility due to ischaemia/reperfusion(I/R) injury even with early intervention. Objective To assess the protective effect of dexpanthenol administered intratesticular after detorsion against testis I/R injury. Study Design Twenty-seven rats were randomly divided into 3 groups containing 9 rats each. The 1st group comprised the sham group with no procedure performed. The 2nd group had only torsion applied, while the 3rd group had torsion+dexpanthenol applied. Rats had 720° clockwise rotation applied to the left testis. After 2 hours of ischaemia, testes were de-torsioned and the dexpanthenol group had 500 mg/kg dexpanthenol administered intratesticular after detorsion. After 4 hours of reperfusion, rats had blood samples taken and orchiectomy was performed for histologic assessment. Results A significant difference was detected in all parameters [necrosis(p: Discussion Dexpanthenol is used in many areas due to both epithelizing and antioxidant effects and lack of clear side effects. In spite of use of many chemical and biological agents to protect against testis I/R injury, none have entered routine use. This study showed that dexpanthenol, which can be easily injected intratesticular during detorsion surgery, has protective effect against histological and functional injury that may develop linked to testis I/R injury. The main limitations of the study are short duration of follow-up due to being a rat experiment and lack of comparison of lipid peroxidation products. Conclusion This study identified that dexpanthenol with clinically easy use by intratesticular injection after detorsion during surgery had a protective effect against histological and functional injury that will develop linked to I/R injury in the testis.