A retrospective analysis of 70 cases of adenomatous metaplasia seen in the St Peter's Hospitals over a 15-year period has been carried out. The lesions occurred at all ages (7-81 years) and in both sexes (51 males, 19 females) and were found throughout the urinary tract from pelvis to urethra. In the pelvis and ureter the finding was usually an incidental one in association with stones or chronic inflammation; ulceration was a frequent accompaniment. Most vesical and urethral lesions followed a surgical procedure months or years previously, the patients re-presenting with haematuria or irritative bladder symptoms. The endoscopic appearances varied but there was often a striking correlation between the location of the lesions and the site of previous surgery. The association of adenomatous metaplasia with ulceration and previous surgery leads us to suggest that it is merely an unusual response to wound healing and attempts to treat it by diathermy resection are, therefore, likely to meet with limited success. Cystoscopic follow-up of persistent lesions gives no reason to suppose they are pre-malignant.

This study concerns 2043 male partners of infertile marriages who underwent testicular biopsy in the 28 years from 1955 to 1982. In a review of the pathological material carcinoma in situ (CIS) was diagnosed in 8 men (0.39%). Six of these men were later found to have invasive germ cell tumours; one has remained tumour-free and one is lost to follow-up. The implication of these findings in relation to the selection of patients for biopsy and the treatment of CIS when diagnosed is discussed.

The management of the undescended testis in the adult patient presents problems in terms of locating the impalpable gonad, the risk of malignancy and prognosis with regard to fertility. CT scanning has been used to locate four intra-abdominal testes. The risk of malignancy has been assessed by determining the incidence of carcinoma in situ after orchiectomy or testicular biopsy in 90 patients (112 testes). Carcinoma in situ was found in 4 of 16 abdominal, 3 of 44 inguinal and none of 52 scrotal testes following orchiopexy in childhood. Seventy per cent of undescended testes in adult patients had no evidence of spermatogenesis. This fact, together with the risk of malignancy in those testes in which germ cells are present, suggests that orchiectomy should be performed in unilateral cases. Testicular biopsy is essential if an undescended testis is to be preserved for androgenic function.

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Transurethral ureteroscopy has now been used in an attempt to retrieve ureteric calculi in 48 patients. Six stones were located in the upper ureter, 11 in the middle and 31 in the lower third of the ureter. Successful retrieval was achieved in 27 patients at the first attempt and in 4 at a second ureteroscopy. Of the 17 failures, 7 patients have required open ureterolithotomy, 3 percutaneous nephrolithotomy and the remainder passed their stones either after in situ disintegration or ureteric meatotomy. There have been no serious complications to date. Transurethral ureteroscopy should now be regarded as the procedure of first choice in the management of ureteric calculi.

Since 1981, 525 renal and ureteric calculi have been removed with percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCN) or transurethral ureteroscopy as the primary modalities of therapy. Successful extraction of the stone at the first attempt was achieved in 92 per cent of cases by PCN and 70 per cent of cases by ureteroscopy, whilst further endoscopic surgery improved the overall success rates to 98 per cent and to 80 per cent respectively. Complication rates from these procedures have both been low as has the morbidity, with most patients leaving hospital within 4 days and returning to work within 2 weeks. The successful development of endoscopic lithotomy and the use of in situ destruction techniques has meant that we now reserve open surgery for difficult multibranched staghorn calculi and ureteric stones embedded in the urothelium. With the advent of extracorporeally generated shockwave lithotripsy it is likely that even these types of stone will be amenable to minimally invasive procedures.

An immunocytochemical method to localise prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in paraffin sections was used to establish the prostatic origin of both primary and metastatic tumours. The specificity of the technique was confirmed in 65 known primary (63 PSA-positive) and 17 metastatic prostatic carcinomas (16 PSA-positive). Thirteen non-prostatic primary carcinomas and a series of benign proliferative and malignant conditions which might be considered in the morphological differential diagnosis of prostatic adenocarcinoma were PSA-negative. The technique has now been applied diagnostically to tumour tissue resected from 21 patients. These neoplasms of the base and neck of the bladder could not be categorised as prostatic or urothelial in origin by clinical and endoscopic assessment or by conventional histopathology. In 11 patients such tumours were PSA-positive, indicating a prostatic origin. In two further patients, the prostatic origin of lymph node secondaries was confirmed in the absence of a clinically apparent primary. The technique is a valuable adjunct to conventional histopathology.

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