Efficacy of microsurgical versus laparoscopic techniques on adolescent varicocele: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective To analyze the efficacy of microsurgical versus laparoscopic varicocelectomy in treatment of adolescent varicocele. Methods All literature about treatment of adolescent varicocele, which met the inclusion criteria, were retrieved by two reviewers and data were extracted to perform a meta-analysis in the use of RevMan 5.3 downloaded from Cochrane library. Results A total of four controlled trials consist of 310 patients were included in the analysis, which displayed that: there was no significant difference in patients with postoperative testicular volume increase or in postoperative recurrence rate between the microsurgical group and the laparoscopic group(P=0.66 and P=0.19). Operative time of the microscopic group was longer than the laparoscopic group(P<0.01) and incidence of postoperative complications of microsurgery was lower(P=0.003). Conclusions Compared with adolescent varicocele, microsurgical varicocelectomy is relatively safer. More high-quality randomized controlled trials in this study are needed for further verification. Key words: Varicocele; Laparoscopes; Microscopy; Meta-Analysis