The three tumours occurred in elderly men, two of whom presented with haematuria, one of whom also had a vesical transitional cell carcinoma, and the third patient had obstructive symptoms due to co-existent prostatic hyperplasia. The histological appearances and immunocytochemical findings were consistent with paraganglioma. Treatment consisted of local excision and there were no recurrences or metastases at 5 and 6 years in two patients for whom follow-up was available. Urethral paragangliomas are rare tumours arising in elderly men and are hormonally inactive. Although haematuria may be the presenting symptom, it is important to exclude additional more common and possibly more sinister lesions such as transitional cell carcinoma.
Local excision appears to be curative.
Benign tumors of the urinary tract are rarer than transitional cell carcinomas. This rare tumor is located more frequently in the ureter and only in 11 cases reported since 1929 the location was the renal pelvis. Between 1976 and 1994 we have seen three cases of fibroepithelial polyps of the urinary tract, two of them affecting the renal pelvis and one of them affecting the ureter. We report the cases located in the pelvis and make a review of the cases reported in this location in the last years and discuss the clinical, radiological and cytological criteria that can lead to a preoperative diagnosis of this entity avoiding an unnecessary nephroureterectomy. In addition, a retrospective tumor DNA ploidy study was done to evaluate its possible role in predicting future tumor recurrence in the bladder.