Standardized education and parental awareness are lacking for testicular torsion

Parental knowledge of testicular torsion was lacking, suggesting both ineffective education in the well-child setting and inappropriately timed education during or after pain occurrence. Awareness was most commonly anecdotal or taught unreliably, as even familiar parents were no more likely to seek emergent attention. Therefore, standardized, effective parental education on testicular torsion and the need for prompt presentation is needed, as is improvement in the quality of information taught in the healthcare setting. Further assessment of knowledge among preadolescent and adolescent boys regarding testicular torsion is warranted. It is hopeful that pre-hospital delay may be minimized and greater rates of testicular salvageability may be achieved through these efforts.380Summary Figure. Knowledge of testicular torsion among parents and their sources of knowledge. Percentages are among only those who knew about torsion and not of the total respondents. Roughly a third of parents had heard of testicular torsion. Among them, the most common source of knowledge was a friend or relative, i.e. “word of mouth.” In contrast, traditional sources of health education (i.e. Pediatricians, schools) were infrequent sources of testicular torsion knowledge, seen among 17.1% and 1.8% in this group, respectively, and 5.8% and 0.6% of parents overall.