Effect of tunica albuginea incision on testicular tissue in testicular torsion

BACKGROUND: Testicular torsion is the underlying cause in 15–20% of children presenting to the emergency department with scrotal pain. Testicular torsion, which is defined as the rotation of the testis around itself at the level of the spermatic cord, may cause organ loss due to impaired circulation. It is recommended to detortion the testis within the first 6 h to prevent organ loss. The aim of the study is to examine the effect of Tunica Albuginea incision (TAI) made in addition to detorsion (DT) on the viability of the torted testis. METHODS: The research has an experimental design. The study was carried out on three groups of rats (Sham, testicular torsion-(T-DT), TAI, and testicular torsion-detortion. After 10 days of follow-up, testes in the groups were taken for pathological examination. In the pathological examination, necrosis, ischemic changes, Johnsen score, edema, inflammation, and basement membrane thickening were evaluated and scored in all pathological samples. RESULTS: Necrosis, ischemic changes, edema, inflammation, and basal membrane thickening were found to be significantly less in the TAI group. Furthermore, the mean Johnsen Scores were significantly different between the T-DT (7.44±0.52) and TAI (8.60±0.51) groups. CONCLUSION: The results showed that the testicles in the TAI group were better preserved than the testicles, in which only DT was applied. It can be argued that in testicular torsion, the DT procedure is not sufficient to protect the testis, and it would be beneficial to add TAI to the procedure.