Introduction

Abstract

Cryptorchidism remains a common but poorly understood anomaly affecting 2%–5% of children. Major controversies exist over the timing and type of treatment (i.e. surgical vs hormonal therapy) and whether intervention prevents subsequent infertility and testicular cancer. Part of the dilemma is caused by lack of understanding of the normal process of descent, despite intensive research and study since the eighteenth century, when Hunter and von Haller first described the gubernaculum (caudal genito-inguinal ligament) and processus vaginalis (Williams and Hutson 1991a). More needs to be known, not only of the normal mechanism, but also of the ways that it can be deranged to produce undescended testes.