Acute scrotal swelling in children.

Children with acute scrotal swelling are a common surgical emergency. We reviewed retrospectively the case notes of 143 children seen over a 5-year period. Of these, 60 boys had torsion of an appendage testis, 50 had torsion of the testis, 15 had acute epididymo-orchitis, ten had idiopathic scrotal oedema and eight had undiagnosed scrotal pain. Particular attention is drawn to the age of presentation of the different pathologies, the apparent shorter time to infarction of the testis following torsion in those under 12 years of age, and the association of anal lesions to idiopathic scrotal oedema.