Common Causes in Acute Scrotal Pain

Abstract

Patients with acute scrotal pain can be categorized into 2 major groups, pain-predominant and swelling-predominant group.The pain-predominant group is a very crucial one, which is needed to be diagnosed and treated as quickly as possible. Delayed management may cause loss of testis. The most common conditions are testicular torsion, torsion of the testicular appendage and acute epididymitis. Managements are different in each disease. Testicular torsion is a true emergency condition requiring immediate operation otherwise the patient will lose his testis due to prolonged testicular ischemia. Torsion of the testicular appendage may be conservatively treated with medication, with operation or in some cases, while acute epididymitis should be treated with appropriate antibiotics.

Rapidity of management initiation is vital for survival of the testis in these conditions. In order to start an appropiate management, the patient’s condition must be diagnosed correctly by good history taking and gathering specifi c physical findings, along with result of effective additional investigations.

Key words : Acute scrotum, Emergency condition, Scrotal pain, Testicular torsion, Torsion of the testicular appendage,Acute epididymitis