DeWitt ME, et al. - Experts sought to assess the classic teaching that isolated right varicoceles were related to significantly high rates of occult malignancies. Compared to the men having left or bilateral varicoceles, those with right varicoceles were older, heavier, and underwent more CT scans, but did not have higher rates of the cancer diagnosis.

Methods

• Authors performed a retrospective chart review that included all men diagnosed with varicocele at the Cleveland Clinic from 2000 to 2015.
• They queried the charts for demographics, varicocele laterality, cross-sectional imaging, and subsequent diagnosis of abdominal malignancy or vascular anomaly.
• Researchers presented the descriptive statistics as means ± standard deviation .
• Analyses of variance with Tukey-Kramer pair wise comparisons or chi-squared tests as indicated was included in comparative statistics.
• They considered all p<0.05 as significant.

Results

• As per data, varicocele was diagnosed in 4,060 men (3258 left, 337 right, 465 bilateral).
• Experts noted the men with right varicoceles to be significantly older (43.6+17.1) compared to the ones with left (33.4+14.9, p < 0.0001) or bilateral (34.9+15.3, p < 0.0001), and had higher body mass indices (right: 28.9+5.7, left: 26.4+5.5, p < 0.0001, bilateral: 26.5+5.5, p < 0.0001).
• Findings suggested no significant association of laterality of varicocele with cancer diagnosis (p=0.313), with cancer diagnosed in 2.67% of right, 1.63% of left, and 2.15% of bilateral varicoceles.
• Results demonstrated that the rates of abdominal CT imaging differed significantly (p<0.0001) by laterality: 30.3% of right, 8.7% of left, and 11.2% of bilateral varicoceles were scanned.
• No significant differevce in vascular anomalies by varicocele laterality was seen.