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Paediatric testicular tumours in a New Zealand centre
Timothy Little1, Shareena Lala2, Vipul Upadhyay3
1Paediatric Surgical Registrar, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Wellington Regional Hospital, Wellington.
Aim:
This is a 12-year, single-centre retrospective review of paediatric testicular tumours and review of the world literature on paediatric testicular tumours. The aim was to identify presenting features, the range of pathology and management of such tumours in comparison with other published series.
Methods:
The hospital's pathology database was searched for all testicular and paratesticular tissue submitted for patients younger than 16 years of age during the 12-year study period January 2000 to December 2011, and patients with testicular tumours identified. A detailed review of clinical records was then completed and summary statistics calculated.
Results:
There were 33 tumours and 22 (66.7%) were malignant. The most common tumour was mature teratoma. No tumours presented with a twisted gonad. The mean incidence per year was 2.75 cases. This is comparable to other reported series worldwide (median 1.92, range 1.7-6.3).
Conclusion:
Testicular tumours in children are rare. In our centre, mature teratoma was the most common tumour, and malignant testicular tumours did not present with torsion. Our experience in managing gonadal tumours is similar to that published by major centres for paediatric surgery across the world. There is scope to develop the practice of testis-sparing surgery.