Abstract | INTRODUCTION: Males who present with a palpable testis nodule are likely to have malignant germ cell tumor in >90% of cases. Therefore radical orchiectomy remains the standard of care for intratesticular tumors. However, due to the recent developments of high-frequency probes in ultrasonography, the incidence of detecting a small non-palpable testis tumor is higher and higher. These lesions are thought to be benign in more than 60-80% of cases, thus a radical orchiectomy should be considered an overtreatment. In addition to that, radical orchiectomy might cause infertility, psychological issues and endocrine disorders, hence an organ-sparing procedure in such cases should be pursued. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Only fourteen reliable retrospective studies met the inclusion criteria. No prospective randomized trials have appeared in Medline database. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: This review of the current literature has confirmed the safety and efficacy of testicular-sparing surgery in selected patients: 1) monorchid patients; 2) bilateral testis masses; 3) normal patients with a small, non-palpable masses detected with US, as long as the dimension of the lesion is up to 3 cm and not greater that 30% of the total volume of the organ. CONCLUSIONS: According to the literature, testis sparing surgery is a safe and feasible procedure for patients presenting a benign small testis mass. The enthusiasm found in the literature should however be tempered as the small number of patients reported in the studies coupled with the absence of a prospective trial represent important limits that need to be overtaken. Therefore more robust and well-designed studies are needed.
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Authors | Roberto La Rocca, Marco Capece, Lorenzo Spirito, Marcus K Cumberbatch, Massimiliano Creta, Vincenzo Altieri, Giorgio Franco, Simone Albisinni, Vincenzo Mirone, Francesco Esperto, EAU-ESRU (European Associations of Urology-European Society of Residents Urologist) |
Journal | Minerva urologica e nefrologica = The Italian journal of urology and nephrology
(Minerva Urol Nefrol)
Vol. 71
Issue 4
Pg. 359-364
(Aug 2019)
ISSN: 1827-1758 [Electronic] Italy |
PMID | 30957472
(Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)
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Topics |
- Humans
- Male
- Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal
(surgery)
- Orchiectomy
- Organ Sparing Treatments
(methods)
- Testicular Neoplasms
(surgery)
- Testis
(surgery)
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