CRYPTORCHIDISM. - Failure of one or both testicles to descend, so that they appear absent (χριστός = hidden, ὀργός = testicle); the defect is congenital, often familial and hereditary (frequency 1/100 in the adult). The completely ectopic organ is more or less atrophic and always non-functional with regard to the formation of semen (spermatogenesis), although the interstitial hormonal tissue presents itself intact and active. For this reason, the bilateral cryptorchid presents, for the most part, the other primary and secondary sexual characteristics and normal potentia coeundi. According to canon law he must be considered impotent, if incapable of emitting a "true seed."

Depending on the case, surgery or irradiation of the thymus or organotherapy (anterior pituitary, testicular extracts) practiced around the age of 8-9, before the organ has undergone serious alterations, is capable of saving the physical integrity and the spermatogenetic function of the gland.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: N. Pende, Criptorchidismo, in Enc. Ital., XI (1931), p. 910; M. Messini, Terapia clinica, II, Turin 1944, p. 1748; F. M. Cappello, De matrimonio, 5th ed., Turin 1947, nos. 348-49.

Giuseppe de Nismo

@incollection{ec4_criptorchidia, author = {De, Ninno Giuseppe}, title = {Criptorchidia}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {880}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/criptorchidia} }

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Cryptorchidism

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