Revisiting testicular torsion scores in an Asian healthcare system.

Introduction: Testicular pain is a common presentation amongst young boys. It is important to distinguish between testicular torsion and other testicular pathology as testicular viability is dependent on timely diagnosis and surgical intervention.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of the TWIST score in our population. Our second objective was to compare a new testicular torsion score (TT score) developed in a paediatric Asian population, with the TWIST score in risk stratification for testicular torsion. Duration of symptoms and delays after presentation were also correlated with testicular viability.
Methods: This is a prospective cohort study of children admitted with testicular pain from January 2016 to December 2018 at a tertiary care hospital in Singapore. Relevant findings such as age, nausea/vomiting, testicular swelling/firmness, absence of cremasteric reflex and abnormal lie were collected. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify significant predictive factors of testicular torsion to generate TT score.
Results: A total of 315 patients were involved in this study. Mean age of patients was 121.3 ± 44.2 months. There were 43 patients with testicular torsion. No patients with a TT score of ≤1 were found to have testicular torsion. In contrast, 10 patients with a TWIST score of ≤2 were found to have testicular torsion. Of the patients with testicular torsion, 16 had a TWIST score of ≥5 and 22 had a TT score of ≥6. In this study, the area under the curve was 0.87 for the TWIST score and 0.93 for the TT score.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the TT score is a reliable score for excluding testicular torsion in an Asian patient population with a sensitivity and negative predictive value of 100% at a cut-off value of ≤1. Both TWIST and TT score performed equally well in early presenters (<6 h) Further prospective validation studies are needed to evaluate the utility of the TT score. Delay in presentation to hospital is the most important determinant of outcome.
Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest None.
(Copyright © 2020 Journal of Pediatric Urology Company. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)