[The determination of the size and operability of the retroperitoneal metastases of testicular tumors].

Preoperative feasibility of determining operability and the size of retroperitoneal metastases of nonseminoma germ cell tumors of the testes has been analysed retrospectively for excretory urography, venocavography, ultrasound and computed tomography. Out of 47 patients who entered the study 16 underwent explorative and 31 nonradical surgery. Comparisons of the diagnostic to the intraoperative findings for each of the above methods showed the preoperative evidence on the metastases size erroneous in most the cases. It is concluded that present-day criteria of the preoperative diagnosis fail to infer on operability of retroperitoneal metastases. This can be determined only intraoperatively.