Lymphangiography and Endolymphatic Radiotherapy in Testicular Tumours

Abstract

Most of the lymph nodes draining the lymph from the testicles belong to the abdominal aortic group. Within this large group a few subgroups may be distinguished according to their topographical relationship with the major retroperitoneal blood vessels, thus there is a left para-aortic group composed of five to ten lymph nodes situated to the left of the aorta, and a right para-aortic group where the nodes are more numerous (interaortic-venous nodes, latero-caval nodes, pre-caval nodes, retro-caval nodes, inferior mesenteric, etc.) Most of the collecting trunks which follow the course of the spermatic cord and vein end on the right side in the interaortic venous and pre-caval nodes, a few terminate in a lymph node lying at the level of the aortic bifurcation. On occasion these collecting trunks terminate in the latero-caval nodes located at the confluence of the right renal vein and the inferior vena cava. On the left side the funicular lymphatics end in the latero-aortic nodes especially those situated more cranially, while some collecting trunks may terminate in a lymph node located at the level of the aortic bifurcation. Besides these principal collecting trunks which end in the abdominal-aortic lymph nodes (or, in more general terms, para-aortic nodes), secondary testicular lymph channels terminating at the external iliac and even at the inguinal nodes have been described by some anatomists (Cuneo, 1901; Jamieson and Dobson, 1910; Kinmonth, Taylor and Harper, 1955; Rouviere, 1932).