Spermatic Cord Microdenervation for Chronic Scrotal Pain
Surgery can quickly cure the acute pain and nausea of scrotal pain due to testicular torsion, in which the testicle rotates around the attached spermatic cord. Surgery for chronic pain can be a whole different issue, particularly when the cause of the pain is not so anatomically obvious, as it is with testicular torsion. Can surgery cure chronic scrotal pain?
A group of investigators in Chile and Germany set out to test if surgery with spermatic cord microdenervation could possibly relieve chronic scrotal pain. In this condition, the cause is not known and there is no clear anatomical basis for it. Accordingly, the surgical procedure is not targeted at the [unknown] cause of pain but rather at the nerves that transmit the pain signal to the brain.
The study followed 50 men who had at least three months of pain in the scrotum who had a surgical cord microsurgically denevervated. All had been pre-qualified for surgery with a palliative response to analgesic injected directly in the cord. Intensity of their symptoms was measured with a visual scale for pain for a month after surgery. An operating microscope was used to find the testicular artery.
The authors reported that all surgeries were uneventful and that no testicles had to be sacrificed. Two patients were brought back to the operating room, one for blood in the scrotum and the other for hydrocele. The findings six months postoperatively were that 80 percent of the patients were asymptomatic. Another 12 percent had residual periodic discomfort and the remaining patients had no improvement.
For men with chronic scrotal pain, as for men with erectile dysfunction, surgery is not a first line of treatment. However, the risk:benefit analysis of spermatic cord microdenervation is interesting in that there were relatively few complications -- all testicles survived surgery -- and most patients had symptomatic relief. As with any surgery, the right surgeon can make all the difference. Surgeo offers a surgery package for spermatic cord microdenervation that features highly qualified surgeons. Click on the video below to see the profile of one of these surgeons and click on the following link to see available packages and costs: spermatic cord microdenervation surgery packages.
