Is There a Relationship Between Waking Up from Sleep and the Onset of Testicular Torsion?

Abstract

Testicular torsion is a serious urologic emergency that can present with unusual or atypical history and examination. Classical pain from testicular torsion is of sudden onset, significantly severe, and is accompanied by nausea and vomiting. However, in some patients, the initial scrotal pain appears to considerably subside within the next few hours. In others, testicular torsion tends to occur while sleeping, and many patients recount a history of being woken up from sleep by intense pain. Furthermore, some patients in this subset can resume normal activities and even sleep through the night with little or no discomfort, without a perceived need for pain medications. Other patients initially experience mild pain, which worsens over time. Consequently, these patients are less likely to be evaluated immediately. In view of these atypical cases, the question remains unanswered regarding sleep as a predisposing factor for testicular torsion. This narrative review focuses on exploring the association between sleep and testicular torsion.

Keywords:

• testicular torsion
• torsion of the spermatic cord
• acute scrotum
• sleep
• sleeping
• literature review

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Deanship of Scientific Research at Majmaah University for supporting this work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.