Page 150 - JSOM Summer 2020

An Ongoing Series

Murphy’s Law?

Katarzyna (Kasia) Hampton, MD *; Livia Van Humbeeck 2
1

ou have been deployed for a week and today is your first of tenderness to palpation of the left testicle, particularly over
day off. As you are pondering on how Murphy’s law has the lower aspect. As you grab an ultrasound probe, the patient
Yplagued your team during the past 7 days, one of the blurts out: “Doc, it’s twisted, isn’t it?”
guys starts to complain of severe pain. He proceeds to specify 1. What is the most likely diagnosis based on the ultrasound
that his left testicle started hurting him last night, but it be- findings in Figure 1?
came progressively worse today, throughout the day. It bothers 2. How would you treat this patient?
him a lot with walking, and it improves with rest. He denies
any recent scrotal trauma and prior episodes of the same. He Join us on instagram @sofsono_org for further case discussion.
denies any past medical or surgical history. He does not take
any medications on daily basis.

On examination, you see a 30-year-old man with normal vital Keywords: ultrasound; testicles; austere
signs. The scrotal examination is reassuring, with the exception

FIGURE 1 Longitudinal view of the left scrotal sac.

*Correspondence to sofsono.org@gmail.com
1 Dr Hampton is an emergency physician at the US Army Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, and an expert ultrasound instructor for
2
the military medical community. Ms Van Humbeeck is a medical student at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland.
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