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Time delays in presentation and treatment of acute scrotal pain in a provincial hospital
Author(s) -
Johnston James W.,
Larsen Peter,
ElHaddawi Falah H.,
Fancourt Michael W.,
Farrant Glen J.,
Gilkison William T. C.,
Kyle Stephen M.,
Mosquera Damien A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
anz journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.426
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 1445-1433
DOI - 10.1111/ans.12601
Subject(s) - medicine , testicular torsion , testicular pain , scrotal pain , presentation (obstetrics) , surgery , retrospective cohort study , university hospital , scrotum
Background Acute scrotal pain is a urological emergency due to the possibility of testicular torsion and subsequent testicular loss if correction is not carried out in a timely manner. Methods We conducted a retrospective review of all patients who underwent surgical exploration for acute scrotal pain in a provincial hospital in N ew Z ealand between 1 J anuary 2001 and 31 D ecember 2010. Results A total of 91 cases were identified. The median delay pre‐hospital was 9 h and in‐hospital was 2.5 h. Patients who had a non‐viable testicular torsion and patients under the age of 14 had longer pre‐hospital delays of 24 and 72 h, respectively. In‐hospital delays were similar between all pathologies except for non‐viable testicular torsions with 7 h and 45 min. Viable testicular torsions had a median in‐hospital delay of 2 h and 13 min. Conclusion Delay from the time of testicular pain until surgical exploration is important for the chances of testicular salvage and is made up mostly of pre‐hospital delays. Patients under the age of 14 had longer delays pre‐hospital.