Efficacy and safety of human chorionic gonadotropin for treatment of cryptorchidism: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Aim: Although human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) has long been employed in the management of cryptorchidism, its safety and efficacy is still controversial. Hence, in the present study, we conducted a meta-analysis of the treatment of cryptorchidism using hCG.

Methods: We searched the Medline, Embase, CINAHL, EBSCO, The Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and WanFang databases. Data were extracted by two reviewers using the designed extraction form. Data up to July 2015 were obtained using the terms 'cryptorchidism', 'chorionic gonadotropin' and 'randomised controlled trials'. All the publications were downloaded, and the respective authors were contacted for any further details and clarifications, if deemed necessary. The data analysis included randomised controlled trials that compared hCG with other hormone treatments offered to prepubescent males presenting with cryptorchidism. Testicular descent rate was used as the final positive outcome of the treatments offered. The software Review Manager (RevMan 5.3, The Cochrane Collaboration, London, UK) was used to review the management and data analysis. Risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled with a fixed effect model if no heterogeneity was present.

Results: A total of seven trials satisfied the selection criteria. The overall quality of the studies downloaded from various databases was low. Data from these seven studies were divided into three subgroups depending on the design of the trials: Two studies compared hCG with a placebo, and three studies compared hCG with gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) in unilateral cryptorchidism, whereas two other studies compared hCG with GnRH in bilateral cryptorchidism. Analysis of these trials revealed no significant differences between the effectiveness of hCG treatment and GnRH treatment in bilateral (RR 0.05, 95% CI (-0.29-0.40), two trials, n = 104, P = 0.76) as well as unilateral cryptorchidism (RR 0.04, 95% CI (-0.12, 0.21), three trials, n = 81, P = 0.61). A meta-analysis of these studies showed that hCG treatment is not superior to placebo (RR 7.74, 95% CI (0.14-425.72), two trials, n = 31, P = 0.32).

Conclusion: A meta-analysis of the seven studies led us to conclude that hCG treatment is no more effective than placebo, and there were no significant differences in the effectiveness of hCG versus GnRH treatment.