Cryptorchidism in Boys With Cerebral Palsy Is Associated With the Severity of Disease and With Co-Occurrence of Other Congenital Anomalies

Julia Spencer Barthold, Anton Wintner, Jennifer A. Hagerty, Kenneth J. Rogers, Jobayer Hossain

Cryptorchidism is reported in 40-50% of small case series of cerebral palsy (CP) and attributed to hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis abnormalities, intellectual disability (ID), or cremaster spasticity. We collected demographic and clinical data to define the frequency of cryptorchidism and clinical comorbidities in a large CP population. Electronic health record data were collected for all male patients ≥7 years of age seen in a large, multidisciplinary CP clinic between 2000 and 2016. Variables including age, testicular position, surgical findings, CP severity, birth history, and comorbidities were tested for association using univariable and stepwise backward logistic regression analyses. Of 839 established patients, testis position was scrotal in 553, undescended in 185 (24%), retractile in 38 (5%), and undocumented in 63 cases. Cryptorchidism were diagnosed at a mean age of 5.8 years, with 20% documented as acquired, and testes were most commonly in the superficial inguinal pouch (41%) and associated with an inguinal hernia (56%). Severity was bilateral in 114/166 (69%) undescended and 24/36 (66%) retractile cases, respectively. Mean birth weight and the frequency of prematurity (55, 58, and 54%) and multiple birth (14, 13, and 9%) were not significantly different among the three groups. We observed a strong ordinal trend in the frequency of comorbidities, including quadriplegia, syndromic features/known genetic disease, intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), death, brain malformations, seizures, gastrostomy, absent continence, ID and hearing, speech or visual impairment, with the retractile group holding the intermediate position for the majority. The stepwise multivariable analysis showed independent positive associations of cryptorchidism with quadriplegia, syndromic features/known genetic disease, hearing loss, and absent continence, and inverse associations with gestational age and multiple birth. These data suggest that cryptorchidism is less common than previously reported in CP cases, but most strongly associated with quadriplegia. Delayed diagnosis may be related to an acquired condition or to the multiple additional functional deficits that occur in this population. Our data suggest that UDT and CP may both be components of malformation syndromes occurring in singleton births whose clinical features are more likely to include earlier delivery, IUGR, hearing loss, and/or global spasticity.