title: Causes of delay in proper treatment of patients with undescended testis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Undescended testis (UDT) is the most common endocrine disorder in male children. Delayed diagnosis and treatment of UDT lead to complications such as infertility, malignancy and testis rotation.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to evaluate the causes of delay in proper treatment of patients with undescended testis in our population.
  
  
  METHODS
  An observational, descriptive, cross sectional study of 143 male patients, who applied to Shahid Sadoughi University Hospitals for orchiopexy operation was performed. The maximum recommended age for orchiopexy was 18 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age at referral was 5.34 years. Only 44 (30.8%) cases were operated on before the age of 18 months. The most common reasons of delay in treatment were absence of early diagnose (42.5%), parent's unawareness of surgery necessity and its complications associated (33.7%) and parent's disregard (23.5%). Only 19.6% of patients were diagnosed at born in the hospital. 49% of parents had the correct information for proper operation age and 40.6% of them had enough information about necessity of surgery and side effects of disease. Parent's literacy, place of living and type of cryptorchidism had no significant relation with delay diagnosis (p> 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results revealed that late diagnosis by physician and lack of insight of parents are the main reasons in delayed diagnosis and treatment of UDT. Therefore, education of parents and careful physical examination of the babies at birth and regular follow-up until 18 months can prevent the delay in diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyyed Mostafa
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Shiryazdi
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Modir
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Soheil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Benrazavi
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Nooshin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Moosavi
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kermani-Alghoraishi
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Rahil
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ghahramani
keywords: Delayed diagnosis; Infant; Orchiopexy; Undescended testis