Open Access

RESIDENT’S CORNER

The case of the shrinking testis

Dwayne Tun Soong Chang¹, Isaac Andrew Thyer^1,2, Dickon Hayne^1,3, Darren Jonathan Katz⁴

1 Fremantle Hospital and Health Service, Western Australia, Australia
2 Barwon Health, Victoria, Australia
3 University of Western Australia, Western Australia, Australia
4 Western Health, Victoria, Australia
Address correspondence to Dr. Dwayne Chang, Fremantle Hospital and Health Service, Alma Street, Fremantle WA 6160 Australia

Canadian Journal of Urology 2015, 22(4), 7935-7937.

Abstract

We report the case of a man with idiopathic lymphocytic orchitis (LO) manifested by undifferentiated testicular pain and atrophy. Conventional investigation results were unremarkable. Oral ciprofloxacin only improved the pain temporarily. Scrotal exploration surgery was performed to exclude acute testicular torsion and a biopsy was taken during surgery for histological examination. Histology revealed severe LO with reduced spermatogenesis. A trial of oral steroids was initially effective but the effect was temporary. Due to chronic pain, he eventually underwent unilateral orchidectomy. Histology confirmed the initial diagnosis of LO. He was pain-free postoperatively. Idiopathic LO is a rarely reported cause of testicular atrophy.

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