ULTRASONOGRAPHIC EVALUATION AND CLINICAL CORRELATION OF INTRATESTICULAR LESIONS - A SERIES OF 39 CASES

Objective To assess the accuracy, sensitivity of ultrasonography (US) testicular tumours. Patients and methods Ultrasonography of the scrotu m was performed in 39 patients (mean age 20.3 years, range 3-61) refer red to the hospital because of pain, tenderness, appearance of a mass in the scrotum or swelling of the scrotum after trauma. Results Intrat esticular lesions were detected by US in 35 patients and four had no s uspicious findings after surgical exploration of the scrotum based sol ely on clinical findings. In five patients the findings on US were com patible with neoplasm, but at surgery or follow-up, no tumour was foun d. In one case, the US findings suggested inflammation, but on explora tion 3 weeks later, an embryonal cell carcinoma was found. Conclusions While very sensitive in differentiating an intra-from an extratesticu lar lesion, and in ruling out a testicular tumour (sensitivity 96.6%), the US examination is less specific (specificity 44.4%) as the US pat tern of different benign process may be similar to those of tumours, T he positive predictive value (85.3%) and the accuracy (84.6%) imply th at when an intratesticular lesion is detected on US, even when there i s no clinical suspicion of neoplasm, exploration of the scrotum is ind icated.