Trends of testis-sparing surgery for pediatric testicular tumors in South China

BACKGROUND: Testis-sparing surgery is not popular in South China. This study aimed to investigate this procedure for pediatric testicular tumors. METHODS: Children with testicular benign tumors were retrospectively analyzed from January 2001 to June 2015 in the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) and the First Affiliated Hospital (SYSU-1st). Follow-up was performed until June 2016, and the proportions of TSS in the two hospitals during the different periods were compared. RESULTS: Forty-seven children with testicular benign tumors were enrolled, and 16 cases underwent testis-sparing surgery. All patients were cured and discharged, which included mature teratoma (n = 37), testicular adrenal rest tumors (n = 4), epidermal cysts (n = 3), granulomatous inflammation (n = 2) and adenomatoid tumors (n = 1). Inguinal testis-sparing surgery was performed in 16 children, and no recurrence was detected during follow-up. It was performed more frequently in SYSUCC than in SYSU-1st (P = 0.031), and the tumor size of these patients was smaller than those of patients who underwent radical orchiectomy (P = 0.044). Moreover, testis-sparing surgery has become more common in the past 5 years, although differences over time have not reached significance (P = 0.051). CONCLUSIONS: Testis-sparing surgery is reliable, and tumor size and special hospitals affect its success. Additionally, its use has become more popular in recent years. However, advocacy is still needed for the use of this technique in pediatric testicular benign tumors that are small sized. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12893-017-0230-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.