A rare cause of acute abdomen – the torsioned intra abdominal testicular tumor

Abstract

Cryptorchidism is a developmental defect in which the testes fail to descend completely into the scrotum. Isolated cryptorchidism affects 3% of full-term male newborns. True undescended testis is unilateral in 80% cases. Approximately 70- 77% of cryptorchid testes will spontaneously descend, usually by 3 months of age. Approximately 10% of testicular tumors arise from undescended testes. The higher the position of an undescended testis, the greater is the risk for development of malignancy. Almost half of the tumors that occur in testes are located abdominally, with 6-fold higher frequency than in an inguinal testis. The most common tumor that develops from the cryptorchid testis is the seminoma. Complications of intraabdominal testis such as torsion, rupture and bleeding are rare¹.