[Laparoscopy in the non-palpable testicles. Is it always necessary?]

In order to know the role of diagnostic laparoscopy with non palpable testicles (NPT), 15 children with 16 NPT were studied. Middle age was 7 years (R: 2-12). The surgical procedure was: laparoscopy initially and open inguinal surgery (OIS) after that. Six NPT were discovered with laparoscopy (37.5%). With OIS inguinal hernia was present in 4 cases, with testicle into the inguinal sac in 3 cases; 12 cases had not inguinal hernia, and 6 of them showed spermatic vessel and vas deferent without testicle. Orquidopexy of the 6 located testicles and testicular prothesis implantation in the other 10 cases, were performed. Finding of laparoscopy and OIS were perfectly correlated. Laparoscopy made the diagnosis in 7 cases, which the OIS would have been unable to do it (43.7%). In the other 9 cases, the OIS would have been diagnostic enough (56.2%) without laparoscopy. For those results, the authors prefer to begin the surgical procedure with OIS and if the spermatic vessels are no located, then the laparoscopy is done under the same anesthesia.