Anatomical findings of the vanishing testis

Inguinal exploration of 62 clinically impalpable undescended testes reveals 40 (64%) instances of absent testis. Nine (22.5%) of the 40 explorations showed complete absence of the testes along with the epididymis and vas deferens, six (15%) were associated with only vas ending blindly, and the other 25 (67.5%) were associated with blind-ending vas deferens and blood vessels: the "vanishing testis syndrome." The anatomical findings of these vanishing testes showed the presence of a vas deferens and vessels lying side by side in the inguinal canal. In Addition, two patients with bilateral vanishing testis were found to be a normal 46 xy phenotypic male. Since testicular tissue is necessary in utero to stimulate external genital development, these findings, imply that testes vanished at some point following induction of masculinization, possibly as a result of an intrauterine vascular accident or testicular torsion. Also, according to the anatomical findings of vanishing testis, it gave us the signal to terminate the exploration when we found absent testis with a blind-ending vas plus vessels on one or both side in an operation for impalpable testis.