ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Acute scrotum is a clinical syndrome that is defined as an acute painful swelling of the scrotum. It is well known that early surgical exploration is needed to prevent the testicular loss when testicu lar torsion breakouts. But most of reports were only focused on testicular torsion of prepubertal age group. This fact let us examine the acute scrotum with all age group and the significance of surgical exploration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the results collected from 112 patients (131 cases) with acute scrotum who had been admitted to our hospital between June 1994 and November 1999 with the exception of scrotal trauma. RESULTS: The incidence of acute scrotum over 20 years old was 72.4% of total acute scrotum patients. The most common disease was acute epididymitis giving the rate of 71.8% (94 cases). In adult the incidence of testicular torsion was low (3 cases). Surgical torsion was 12 cases and acute epididymitis was 12 cases as the cause of acute scrotum. CONCLUSIONS: Most cases of testicular torsion have been below 20 years old and only 3 cases have been over 20 years old. Although the incidence of testicular torsion over 20 years old has been low. There were severe infectious diseases needing surgical approach in the cases of aged patient. this research shows that the treatment of acute scrotum goes with the need of surgical therapy.