A Case of Cystic Ectasia of the Rete Testis

Abstract

A 66-year-old man visited our hospital due to a palpable left testicular mass for 8 months. His medical history was unremarkable with no history of herniorrphaphy, vasectomy, epididymitis or trauma. His physical examination was also unremarkable except palpable mass on the left testis. Testicular ultrasound showed clustered anechoic tubular structures in the rete testis of left testicle (Fig. 1). Serum testicular tumor markers (α-fetoprotein, β-human chorionic gonadotropin and lactate dehydrogenase) were all within normal limits. The patient wanted to distinguish the intratesticular cystic lesion from a malignancy, therefore, a left radical orchiectomy was performed. The cut surface showed multilocular cysts, lined by simple cuboidal to columnar epithelial cells. They were located mainly in the area of the rete testis and consistent with a cystic ectasia of the rete testis (Fig. 1).