Cryptorchidism: treatment with human chorionic gonadotropin--a Venezuelan experience

The study comprised 323 cryptorchidic boys, between 6 months and 14 years of age (mean age 5.68 years) with 440 maldescended testes. Testicular position was graded as inguinal low or prescrotal (I), inguinal middle (II), inguinal high (III), and abdominal testes (IV). Boys before 4 years of age received human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) as intramuscular injections (I.M.), 500 IU twice a week for 5 weeks; and boys 4 or more years of age received hCG (IM), 1000 IU twice a week for 5 weeks. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the response of maldescended testes to treatment with hCG, and to investigate possible associations between the patients' ages and position of the testes with the response to hCG. Out of the 440 maldescended testes, 329 were in an inguinal location (75%) and 111 were abdominally located (25%). The overall response to hCG was 40%, and the inguinal testes response was 49%, with the highest success rates (72%) for the prescrotal testes. A positive correlation was found (p < .0001) between the rate of success and the testicular position. There was no association between the hCG response and the age at which treatment was initiated.