Surgery in recurrence of undescended testes

: In the period from Jan. '80 to Dec. '87 at the Pediatric Surgical Clinic in Belgrade 119 patients were operated upon or 147 recurrencies of undescended testes; in 28 cases (23.52%) there were bilateral recurrences. 4 patients were twice unsuccessfully operated on at the same side. The authors analyse the causes of failures of orchiopexy; the proved mistakes were divided into four groups: a) Mistakes due to the undiscovering of the testis, b) unpreparation, or insufficiently preparated the testis from surrounding tissues, c) insufficiently shortening of the testis' way toward the scrotum, and d) mistakes being occasionally arised during the fixation of the testis into the scrotum. During the first unsuccessful operation 20 testes have atrophied, so that a reintervention consisted only in the exploration. In other cases the testis was placed into the scrotum regardless whether it was normal or hypotrophic. In two cases a Fowler-Stephens procedure was carried out, and in one case an autotransplantation of the testis was done. An improvement was found in 89 testes (60.57%), while 38 cases (25.85%) remained with the same characteristics, as they were in the course of our surgical interventions.