[Benign cystic tumors of the testis in children]

Benign cystic testicular tumors are very uncommon in childhood. These tumors can be dysplasic or teratomatous forming two peculiar groups. First electively affect the rete testis cells realizing simple cysts or multicystic dysplasia. The authors report one case of simple cyst in a four months old boy and analyse the eight observations of the literature of similar localisation and histologic structure. Dysplasic cysts are always surrounded by cuboidal or flatted epithelium and their contain is a clear liquid. The cystic dilatation of the rete testis would be consecutive to a defect of junction between the two different embryologic formations of the testicle and its excretor system. The primitive perturbation would affect the mesonephrotic formations sometimes partial cause of simple cysts, elsewhere more extensive responsible of the multicystic dysplasia associated in maximum cases with urinary system malformations. Liquid of the cysts would be the consequence of a very early accentuation of the rete cells secretion. In a second part, the different sorts of benign cystic teratomas are exposed, in order: epidermoid cysts, dermoid cysts and benign mature teratomas. For each of them are related their histologic structure and the frequency in consideration of literature analysis. These teratomatous cystic tumors would be results of a same tumoral process of increasing differentiation. They are benign under condition to be perfectly pure, examination of the whole piece is mandatory. All these benign tumors are commonly revealed by a large isolated testicle, the echography and negative biological evaluation (alpha foetoprotein, gonadotrophin hormones) may lead to suspect the type of tumor but histology only makes the diagnosis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)