Cystic lesions of the prostate gland. A sonographic--pathologic correlation

277 patients underwent biplane transrectal ultrasonography. Twenty-two patients (7.9%) showed evidence of one or more intraprostatic cystic lesions. Histologic correlation was available with total prostatectomy specimens in six patients and surgical drainage in two patients. Sonographically, 11 patients showed one, 6 patients two, and 5 patients three or more intraprostatic cystic lesions. The size of the lesions ranged from 2 to 30 mm, and the majority of lesions were located within the central portion of the gland or at the junction of central and peripheral regions of the gland. Histologically, among the eight pathologically confirmed patients the lesions corresponded to cystically dilated, epitheliallined prostatic glands, a reepithelialized cyst related to previous biopsy, a dilated utricle, and two intraprostatic abscesses. The cystic lesions in our series were not associated with carcinoma of the prostate, but represented either a growth phenomenon related to the presence of benign prostatic hypertrophy, inflammatory conditions (abscesses), or anatomical variants (utricle).