Objectives: We evaluated the clinical presentation and proportion of presenting symptoms of patients operated due to adoles-cent varicocele in our clinic, and assessed the importance of the presenting symptoms for progression of the disease.
Materials and Methods: Clinical records of patients younger than 18 years old underwent surgical treatment for varicocele between 1995 and 2012 were reviewed retrospectively.
Results: Seventy-one patients (mean age 16.4, range 11 to 18) underwent surgery due to varicocele disease. Pain complaint was the most common presenting symptom of the patients underwent varicocele surgery, 46 boys (58.2%) had only pain, 14 boys (17.7%) had only cosme-tic complaint, 7 boys (8.8%) had only swelling, 7 boys (8.8%) had pain+cosmetic, 5 boys (6.3%) had pain+swelling symptoms. While the arith-metic mean of clinical grade was lowest in gro-up 1 (pain only), it was highest in group 3 (swel-ling only) (2.11 vs. 2.71, respectively).
Conclusion: The pain symptom was the main reason for the varicocele surgery perfor-med in adolescent age group. Mean clinical gra-des of varicocele of patients with cosmetic and swelling symptoms were higher than that of the patients with pain symptom and this means that the pain complaint causes the patient co-ming early to the doctor. While there is no par-ticular pain symptom, parental awareness cons-titutes an important part of the early diagnosis. With training and informing parents, the better results can be achieved.
Key Words: Adolescent Varicocele, Clini-cal Presentation, Symptoms.
Abstract
Objectives: We evaluated the clinical presentation and proportion of presenting symptoms of patients operated due to adoles-cent varicocele in our clinic, and assessed the importance of the presenting symptoms for progression of the disease.
Materials and Methods: Clinical records of patients younger than 18 years old underwent surgical treatment for varicocele between 1995 and 2012 were reviewed retrospectively.
Results: Seventy-one patients (mean age 16.4, range 11 to 18) underwent surgery due to varicocele disease. Pain complaint was the most common presenting symptom of the patients underwent varicocele surgery, 46 boys (58.2%) had only pain, 14 boys (17.7%) had only cosme-tic complaint, 7 boys (8.8%) had only swelling, 7 boys (8.8%) had pain+cosmetic, 5 boys (6.3%) had pain+swelling symptoms. While the arith-metic mean of clinical grade was lowest in gro-up 1 (pain only), it was highest in group 3 (swel-ling only) (2.11 vs. 2.71, respectively).
Conclusion: The pain symptom was the main reason for the varicocele surgery perfor-med in adolescent age group. Mean clinical gra-des of varicocele of patients with cosmetic and swelling symptoms were higher than that of the patients with pain symptom and this means that the pain complaint causes the patient co-ming early to the doctor. While there is no par-ticular pain symptom, parental awareness cons-titutes an important part of the early diagnosis. With training and informing parents, the better results can be achieved.
Key Words: Adolescent Varicocele, Clini-cal Presentation, Symptoms.