Cryptorchidism of testicular germ-cell tumors, and psychological problems when the boy is grown. Undescended testes are also more susceptible to testicular torsion (and subsequent infarction) and inguinal hernias. Without intervention, an undescended testicle will usually descend during the first year of life, but to reduce these risks, undescended testes can be brought into the scrotum in infancy by a surgical procedure called an orchiopexy. Although cryptorchidism nearly always refers to congenital absence or maldescent, a testis observed in the scrotum in early infancy can occasionally "reascend" (move back up) into the inguinal canal. A testis which can readily move or be
Users' Guides to the Medical Literature Users' Guides to the Medical Literature The Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature is a series of articles originally published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association", later rewritten and compiled in a textbook, now in its third edition. The guides provide practical, clinician-friendly advice on all aspects of evidence-based medicine. During the late 1970s a group of clinical epidemiologists at McMaster University including Dr. David Sackett prepared a series of articles to assist clinicians interpreting clinical research. These articles, introducing the term "critical appraisal", appeared in the "Canadian Medical Association Journal" beginning in 1981. In 1990 Dr. Gordon