Congenital abnormalities and growth patterns among cryptorchidic boys.

Congenital abnormalities, birth weight and approximate gestational age among 165 boys operated upon for cryptorchidism were registered. Their growth and sexual development was recorded on the basis of a follow-up questionnaire. We found a high incidence of congenital abnormalities, a slightly reduced birth weight and a high incidence of prematurely born boys. The patients seemed to be somewhat taller and more slender during the prepubertal period than their brothers who served as reference material. This trend seemed to disappear at the onset of puberty. The final height and weight did not differ from the final height and weight among the patients' brothers and fathers. The observed data may indicate that the prepubertal growth of cryptorchidic boys follows a hypogonadic pattern. The incidence of familial occurrence of undescended testes was also registered, 3.9% of the father and 6.5% of the brothers were reported to have undescended testes.