Testicular tuberculosis: A case report and literature review

Abstract

Clinical case: A 33-year-old man with a family history of pulmonary tuberculosis sought medical consultation due to predominantly nocturnal fever and the perception of a painless right testicular mass. He had no other associated symptoms and tumor markers were within normal ranges.

Relevance: According to World Health Organization figures, infection due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the most frequent opportunistic infection worldwide.

Conclusion: The characteristic clinical presentation of testicular tuberculosis is a painless testicular mass that is difficult to differentiate from a malignant tumor. Nonspecific laboratory and imaging findings, together with low diagnostic suspicion, result in a high percentage of late diagnoses.  At present, the disease is detected through pathologic findings in the surgical specimen, in a considerable number of patients. Even though short-term and medium-term outcomes tend to be favorable, one of the long-term complications of testicular tuberculosis is infertility, secondary to the destruction of the testicular parenchyma and/or obstruction of the sperm release pathway.