Testicular adenomatoid tumours: clinical and ultrasonographic characteristics

To determine if benign testicular tumours can be identified clinically and ultrasonographically before surgery.

The clinical and ultrasonographic findings of six patients with testicular adenomatoid tumours and 16 with testicular germ cell tumours were assessed retrospectively and compared.

All adenomatoid tumours were characterized on physical examination by a well-defined, painful and unfixed nodule, contrasting with the painless and ill-defined malignant lesions. On ultrasonography, of the six adenomatoid tumours, two appeared hypoechoic, one hyperechoic, two isoechoic and one was normal, whereas none of the 16 tumours appeared normal or isoechoic.

While isoechogenicity was not apparent in the group of testicular malignancies, the two groups had hypo- and hyperechoic patterns. Small, superficial, painful and unfixed testicular tumours that appear isoechoic on ultrasonography should be biopsied through an inguinal approach, with frozen sections assessed, instead of the patients undergoing immediate radical orchidectomy.