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Refluent testicular autotransplantation by Domini's method

Personal experience with seven pediatric patients

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Abstract

Autotransplantation presently constitutes the best option for the surgical treatment of non-palpable retained intra-abdominal testes. Silber first proposed this technique in 1978; it is not suitable in children under 3 years of age because of the small caliber of the testicular artery. In 1986 Dòmini, mindful of the problem of arterial vascularisation, carried out “refluent testicular autotransplantation” (RTAT), where a natural anastomosis between the testicular and deferential arteries is used. Venous drainage is guaranteed by performing a microsurgical anastomosis between the internal spermatic and inferior epigastric veins.

At our institution this technique has been employed since 1990, replacing staged orchidopexy. We report a 2-year experience (1990–1992) in seven children who underwent RTAT and discuss the results obtained and the technique used.

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Noccioli, B., Pampaloni, A. Refluent testicular autotransplantation by Domini's method. Pediatr Surg Int 10, 356–358 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00182223

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