Reliability of echo-color-Doppler in the differential diagnosis of the "acute scrotum". Our experience.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how echo-colour-Doppler (ECD) plays an important role in the aetiological diagnosis and differential diagnosis of acute scrotal pain, and whether it could be regarded as a detecting method of first choice for a variety of diseases leading to acute orchialgia and having similar clinical manifestations (pain, swelling and reddening of the scrotal skin). We have studied 23 patients between 16 and 32 years of age (average: 24 years); the side affected by acute orchialgia was the right side in 9 cases and the left one in 14 cases. During surgery, testicular torsion resulted to be present in 8 cases out of the 16 examined. Pre-operative ECD found complete testicular torsion with 2 false negatives, showing a sensitivity of 75% and a specificity of 87%. We, therefore, believe that ECD is rather reliable in the pre-operative diagnosis of testicular torsion and that it could be used for the pre-operative diagnosis of this urological affection.