Surgery Overview

• Surgery Overview
• What To Expect
• Why It Is Done
• How It Works
• Risk
• What To Think

Surgery to move an undescended testicle into the scrotum is called orchiopexy or orchidopexy. It is usually performed on infants and young boys between age 6 months and 1 year. In most cases, a pediatric surgeon or a specialist who treats urinary problems in children (pediatric urologist) performs the surgery.

Orchiopexy may also be done on older boys and, rarely, teens and adult men with undescended testicles. Untreated undescended testicles are usually removed in adult men and teens who have gone through puberty because of the increased risk of testicular cancer.

Depending on the location of the testicle, one or two small incisions are made in the scrotum, the groin, or the abdomen to allow the surgeon to reach the testicle and move it to the scrotum. Sometimes a surgical method called laparoscopy is used to move undescended testicles when they are located high in the inguinal canal or in the abdomen. In both types of orchiopexy, general anesthesia is used.

Usually only one surgery is needed; however, in some cases where the testicles are located in the abdomen, orchiopexy may require two separate operations that are several months apart. Sometimes an undescended testicle is surgically removed from the body and reimplanted in the scrotum (testicular autotransplantation), and the surrounding tissues and blood vessels are reattached.