Papers of the Week

Testicular torsion is a pathological condition which leads to sever scrotal pain and ischemia. After surgical reperfusion, oxidative stress factors cause to germ cell apoptosis. Thus, adjuvant therapy to surgery should be useful to decrease of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury of testis. Modafinil, a drug to treat sleepiness, has been indicated to have anti-inflammatory effects. The aim was to evaluate the efficiency of modafinil administration after reperfusion surgery in a rat model of testicular torsion/detorsion (T/D). Male wistar rats were divided into three groups and each group contained 10 animals. To induce torsion right testis was rotated 720° clockwise and was left for 1 h. Modafinil group received modafinil (10 mg/kg) once daily intraperitoneally for 7 days after the surgery and the control group received physiologic saline once daily intraperitoneally for 7 days after the surgery. Thereafter, MDA, IL-1β and TNF-α levels and histopathological changes were investigated. MDA, IL-1β and TNF-α levels significantly increased in T/D group compared to the control group (P < .01 and P < .001, respectively). Moreover, modafinil administration significantly reduced these values compared to T/D group (P < .05 and P < .01, respectively). Histopathological changes such as degeneration in germinal cells were detected in testis T/D group of rats whereas modafinil administration prevented degeneration in germinal cells, edema and hemorrhage compared with T/D group. In conclusion, administration of modafinil after reperfusion surgery had protective role on testicular torsion in rat and reduced ischemia/reperfusion cellular injury via anti-inflammatory and decrease of oxidative stress.