The role of echography in the intraoperative study of non-palpable testicular masses

Intraoperative ultrasound localization of the non palpable testicular lesions allows to detect small gonadal tumors or to well study benign testicular masses. Several methods have been proposed to study non palpable testicular masses including CT and NMR. Prospective studies of the efficacy of CT vs spermatic venography in localization of cryptorchid testes have also been reported: spermatic venography proved to be the most accurate of the two modalities even if possible neoplastic degeneration of testicular tissue is very difficult to investigate with this method. Herein we describe our clinical experience and particularly four cases in which we adopted intraoperative ultrasonography of testes with different results. M.S. a 28 year old infertile patient underwent testicular ultrasound during a check-up and a little image localized at the level of right testis was found. Even if no mass was palpable we decided to operate on the patient; an intraoperative testicular ultrasound revealed the precise localization so that the little mass was excised and examined at once. Histologic study confirmed the presence of tumoral tissue and orchiectomy was performed: deeper hystological studies confirmed it was a leydigioma. D.C. 27 year old bilaterally cryptorchid patient had been already operated on twice but no testicular structure was encountered at the level of inguinal channels. Neither preoperative abdominal ultrasound nor CT revealed the presence of the testes. At abdominal exploration both testes were localized in the iliac region. Intraoperative testicular ultrasound allowed us to localize a right testicular tumor: right orchiectomy and left autotransplantation were performed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)