Current problems of the diagnostics of the retroperitoneum

The authors discussed the examinations yielding optimal results in revealing the pathological retroperitoneal processes. Among those were bilateral dorsopedal lymphography, ultrasonography and computed tomography. They evaluated these examinations in detecting the retroperitoneal lymph node metastases of 15 non-seminoma patients. They describe their 4 cases of extragonadal germ-cell and testicular tumours and speculate on their development. They suppose that the 'unexplainable' renal colics of the older male patients can possibly be due to primary retroperitoneal germ-cell tumours.