Urinary cytology in the diagnosis of renal xanthogranulomatosis.

We present our 4-year experience on the preoperative diagnosis of renal xanthogranulomatosis by sequential urinary cytology. The usefulness of this method is evident due to the absence of any other possible means of preoperative diagnosis of this disease. The possibility of obtaining foam cells by ureteral catheter washouts and translumbar aspiration in the patients, where spontaneous urine cytologies were negative, is also pointed out.