Idiopathic scrotal calcinosis: the incorrect terminology of scrotal calcinosis.

AIM: Scrotal calcinosis is a rare and benign condition characterized by multiple calcific deposits occurring in scrotum and formed as nodules and lumps within scrotal skin with any systemic metabolic disorder. The so-called idiopathic scrotal calcinosis does not appear to be idiopathic, but rather a process of dystrophic calcification of epidermal cysts. Histological examination shows calcium deposites with in the dermis that may be surrounded with histiocytes and an inflammatory giant cell reaction. The aim of this paper was to detect dystrophic calcification of epidermal cysts and to take attention to the incorrect terminology of "idiopathic calsification". METHODS: This is a two-centered study of scrotal calcinosis with 17 cases, on which clinical and histopathological examinations were conducted. RESULTS: The patients we examined all had scrotal epidermoid cysts in varying stages of inflammation coexisted with scrotal calcinosis. Some cyts (52.9%) had intact epithelial walls, others (35.2%) showed rupture of their epithelial walls associated with the presence of keratin fibers and calcium granules in the surrounding dermis and all had naked calcium deposits lying in the dermis. CONCLUSION: The spectrum of the changes that we experienced in the histology, coupled with the normal values in the biochemical profile, shore up the theory of dystrophic calcification of epithelial cysts. During the time first these cysts become inflamed than rupture in the and calcium depocytes replase with the cysts.