Laparoscopy: its selected use in patients with unilateral nonpalpable testis after human chorionic gonadotropin stimulation.

Laparoscopy has been used to help evaluate patients with a unilateral nonpalpable testis. This procedure can be performed quickly just before exploration with the patient under the same anesthetic. With laparoscopy it has been possible to localize either a testis or the course of the spermatic vessels in 100 per cent of the patients. Preoperative knowledge of testis location is helpful to plan the location of the incision as well as the type of repair. The incidence of vanishing testis in our series is much higher than that reported previously. This difference is attributed to a careful examination with the patient under anesthesia and preoperative treatment with human chorionic gonadotropin, which made many testes palpable. These results indicate that laparoscopy can be performed safely and quickly, and that it is helpful to manage patients with a unilateral nonpalpable testis.