Necessary extent of lymph node dissection in testicular tumours. A histopathological investigation

The findings of a prospective topographic histopathological study of the lymphatic spread of testicular tumours are reported. The study includes 150 patients, 9 of whom were subjected to exploratory laparotomy while 141 patients underwent retroperitoneal lymph node dissection. Lymphatic spread occurs in accordance with a quite definite pattern, atypical metastases were observed in only 3 of the 150 patients. The material was analyzed with respect to the possibilities of using limited unilateral dissections. The results show that by observing appropriate safety precautions, including frozen section histology, limited unilateral dissections can be used more frequently.