Impact of bilateral varicocelectomy in infertile men

Abstract

Although the progress in diagnosis methods revealed a high incidence of infra-clinical varicocele, the clinical signification of this pathology is controversial. We compared left unilateral varicocelectomy to bilateral surgery in patients with left clinical varicocele associated to an infra-clinical right one. It is a retrospective study conducted between January 2007 and December 2015 concerning men followed for a varicocele related infertility (one-year or more primary infertility) with two altered sperm analysis (oligospermia and/or asthenospermia) and had a left clinical varicocele associated to right infra-clinical one detected at Doppler Ultrasound. Surgical techniques used were open surgery (sub-inguinal way), antegrade sclerotherapy and coelioscopy. All patients were reviewed with a 6 month post operatively spermogram and minimum follow up of 1 year. Our study included 95 men. Thirty-five patients have had a unilateral left surgery (Group I) and 60 patients have had a bilateral surgical treatment (Group II). The pre-operative spermatic parameters (concentration and progressive mobility) were comparable for the 2 groups. After the surgical treatment, an improvement of these parameters was noted in all the patients without significant difference between the two groups regarding sperm concentration (24.07±9.36×106/mL Vs 23.29±3.88×106/mL) and their progressive mobility (30.47±9.04% Vs 32.39±9.54%). The spontaneous pregnancy rate was 22.8% for patients in group I and 26.6% for those in group II without any statistically difference (p=0.68). Treatment of a right s infra-clinical varicocele, when combined with a left clinical varicocele, gave better results in terms of sperm parameters and spontaneous pregnancy than unilateral varicocelectomy but without statistically significant results. 3.