orchitis

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Definition

Orchitis is an inflammation of one or both testis, accompanied by swelling, pain, fever, and a sensation of heaviness in the affected area.

Description

Viral mumps is the most common cause of orchitis. Bacterial infections associated with the disorder are tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. A mechanical injury to the groin area may also cause orchitis. Fifteen to twenty-five percent of males past the age of puberty with mumps develop orchitis. Epididymo-orchitis (inflammation of both testis and part of the spermatic duct) is the most common bacterial type of Orchitis. This form of the condition occurs most often in sexually active males fifteen years and older, and in men over 45 with enlarged prostates.

— Maureen Haggerty

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n.
Inflammation of one or both of the testes, often occurring as a result of mumps or other infection, trauma, or metastasis.

[Greek orkhis, testicle + -ITIS.]

For more information on orchitis, visit Britannica.com.

Inflammation of a testis. Brucella abortus and B. suis are known causes in cattle and pigs respectively. In rams Actinobacillus seminis is cultured from some lesions. Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis causes a suppurative orchitis. The lesions may be specified as interstitial, intertubular or intratubular.
The clinical signs of acute orchitis are swelling of one or both testes with pain and sensitivity to touch. In chronic orchitis there is no pain but the testes swell slowly and become hard.

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