Gia Dinh People's Hospital said that patient D. T. P (14 years old, residing in Ho Chi Minh City) started having right testicular pain at about 1 am on the 14th. 4. The pain came suddenly, becoming more and more severe, but she did not dare to share it with her parents because she was afraid. Only when she could no longer bear it, P. informed her family and was taken to the emergency room.
At the hospital, through examination and ultrasound, doctors determined that the patient had right testicular torsion, a dangerous surgical emergency, which could cause testicular necrosis if not removed in time.
The Department of Nephrology - Urology, Gia Dinh People's Hospital quickly performed emergency surgery. During surgery, the team recorded that the right testicle was twisted 2 times, making the testicles dark purple due to prolonged anemia. However, after removing the torsion and warming, the testicles gradually turned pink again, showing that blood had started to circulate again. Before this positive signal, the doctors decided to preserve the right testicle and at the same time fix the testicles on both sides to reduce the risk of recurrence.
Testicular torsion occurs when the semen cord, which contains the blood vessels that nourish the testicles, is twisted like a tightly twisted string. Blood does not reach the testicles and every hour that passes reduces the chance of keeping this organ. With this condition, time is not only an important factor, but sometimes the boundary between preserving and removing the testicles.
Dr. Tran Doan Thien Bao, Department of Nephrology - Urology, Gia Dinh People's Hospital said: "When entering the surgery, we determined that this was an emergency case that needed to race against time because the time of ischemia had lasted nearly 7 hours, and the degree of torsion was severe. Fortunately, when the torsion was removed, the testicles turned pink again, which is a very precious sign. Because for patients who are still young and in puberty, as long as there is still an opportunity, we will try our best to preserve the testicles.
It is worth mentioning that testicular torsion is not a rare disease in boys and adolescents. This is a common disease in puberty, when the body grows rapidly. Many cases start at night or near dawn, causing children to wake up from pain but are reluctant to share it with adults.
This shameful psychology is the reason why many children come to the hospital late, missing valuable time to save their testicles. Some children have pre-existing risk factors without knowing it. Among them are congenital abnormalities that cause testicles to move more than normal in the scrotum, making it easy to rotate around the axis and lead to torsion.
Some other cases are related to undescended testicles or abnormally mobile testicles. Cold weather is also considered a factor that can make torsions more likely to occur in some children.
With testicular torsion, just a few hours of delay may also be the price of losing the testicles. This is something parents and teachers need to pay special attention to in boys," Dr. Thien Bao added.
