Variations in timing of surgery among boys who underwent orchidopexy for cryptorchidism

Current clinical guidelines recommend that orchidopexy be performed by the age of 1 in patients with congenital undescended testis. We sought to examine trends in surgical timing and to determine what factors are associated with age at surgery.

The Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) is a national database of >40 freestanding children's hospitals. We searched the PHIS to identify boys with cryptorchidism who underwent orchidopexy between 1999 and 2008. Patient age at orchidopexy was evaluated, and we used multivariate models to determine factors associated with timing of surgery.

We identified 28 204 children who underwent orchidopexy at PHIS hospitals. Of these, 14,916 (53%) were white, and 17,070 (61%) had public insurance. Only 5031 patients (18%) underwent orchidopexy by the age of 1 year; only 12,165 (43%) underwent orchidopexy by the age of 2 years. These figures remained stable over time (P=.32). After adjusting for patient clustering, race (P<.001) and insurance status (P<.001) remained associated with patient age at orchidopexy; however, the treating hospital (P<.001) was the most important factor in predicting the timing of the procedure.

Only 43% had surgery by 2 years of age, which suggests that either significant numbers of boys with congenital cryptorchidism do not undergo surgery in a timely fashion or late-onset testicular ectopy is more common than generally recognized. Factors associated with the timing of orchidopexy include patient race, insurance status, and the hospital in which surgery is performed.