Our experience suggests that the most important factor in serial transplantation is the collaboration of urologists and pathologists in expediting placement of the tumor in cold saline, examination of the frozen section, and transplantation.

Spontaneous rupture of the kidney involves either the collecting system or parenchyma, the latter being associated with a subcapsular or perirenal hematoma. A review was made of 78 cases of spontaneous parenchymal rupture with perirenal hematoma, including 4 of our own. One of these cases is the first description of spontaneous rupture of the kidney secondary to renal vein thrombosis. The patients are usually in the fourth decade of life and present with an acute onset of flank pain, a tender mass and commonly symptoms and signs of shock. Hematuria is often present and generally urography reveals a mass, distorted collecting system and/or non-visualization of the kidney. Tumors are the most common cause followed by vascular diseases, infection, nephritis and blood dyscrasias. Nephrectomy when possible should be performed expeditiously since conservative therapy is uniformly unsuccessful.

Beginning October 1985, 111 men agreed to enter a prospective study of the side effects of low dose papaverine/phentolamine therapy. A total of 46 men dropped out, 30 during the initial phase. The percentage of men with painless nodules almost consistently doubled from one followup examination to the next: 8 per cent at 1 month, 17 per cent at 3 months, 32 per cent at 6 months and 57 per cent at 12 months. The average injection frequency of those with nodules was 2 1/2 times higher than those without nodules. Of the men 41 per cent required an increased dose of medications during followup, and 40 per cent of 50 men had at least 1 abnormality of liver function, most of these involving mild to moderate elevations of alkaline phosphatase and lactic dehydrogenase. Priapism was not encountered during self-injection but it did occur twice in 329 physician-administered injections. Careful regular monitoring of patients should continue as some patients enter the second year of treatment.