[A case of spermatic granuloma difficult to differentiate from malignant tumor]

A 33-year-old man visited our hospital with complaint of painless left intrascrotal mass. A hard and rough induration in contact with the left testis was palpable. The laboratory data including beta-human churionic gonadotropin, alpha fetoprotein and lactate dehydrogenase were normal. Ultrasound sonography showed a large hypoechoic lesion at the left epididymis. Surgical exploration of this lesion indicated a malignant tumor of the epididymis or spermatic cord, and left high orchiectomy was performed. A milk-white nodule 6 cm in diameter was found in the resected specimen. Pathological diagnosis was spermatic granuloma. Fourteen cases of spermatic granuloma have been reported in the last twenty years in Japan. All of them were relatively small nodules and epididymectomy was performed for most of them. We selected radical orchiectomy because of a large nodule with suspicion of malignant lesion.