Testicular Torsion as an Overlooked Cause of Acute Abdomen

Jung,  Jae Hung; Cha,  Kyoung Chul; Chung,  Hyun Chul; Cha,  Yong Sung; Ryang,  Seung Hoon; Kang,  Tae Wook; Lee,  Chang Min; Kim,  Kwang Jin

J Korean Soc Emerg Med > Volume 25(3); 2014 > Article

Case Report

Journal of The Korean Society of Emergency Medicine 2014;25(3): 344-347.

Testicular Torsion as an Overlooked Cause of Acute Abdomen

Jae Hung Jung, Kyoung Chul Cha, Hyun Chul Chung, Yong Sung Cha, Seung Hoon Ryang, Tae Wook Kang, Chang Min Lee, Kwang Jin Kim

¹Department of Urology, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Republic of Korea. kkjksw@yonsei.ac.kr
²Department of Emergency Medicine, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Republic of Korea.

ABSTRACT

Acute scrotal pain is a common urologic presentation and critical pathology due to the possibility of organ loss in the emergency department. Referred pain in the lower quadrant of the abdomen may accompany testicular torsion. Of 58 patients with testicular torsion between January 2001 and March 2011, three visited the emergency department with abdominal pain alone. The median age of the patients was 16 years (range, 13-19). Median duration of abdominal pain to first medical examination and proper diagnosis by an urologist was 14 hours (range, 2-168) and 77 hours (range, 57-240), respectively. All patients underwent orchiectomy. Due to symptomatic variations for testicular torsion, all clinicians providing emergency care to patients who have referred pain in the lower abdomen without scrotal pain should consider the constellation of symptoms in order to avoid superfluous diagnostic delay.

Key words: Abdomen, Acute, Testicular torsion