[Influence of epididymitis history on the results of vasoepididyostomy in patients with epididymal obstruction].

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the influence of epididymitis history on the results of microsurgical vasoepididymostomy and spontaneous pregnancy in patients with epididymal obstruction.

METHODS

Totally 205 patients with epididymal obstruction underwent microsurgical two-suture longitudinal intussusception vasoepididymostomy from January 2014 to December 2016. After surgery, we evaluated the semen quality of the patients every 3 months till conception and compared the rates of patency and spontaneous pregnancy between the patients with and those without an epididymitis history.

RESULTS

The patients ranged in age from 22 to 46 (mean 31) years, 37 (22.2%) with and 126 (77.8%) without an epididymitis history among the 163 patients for whom a 25.4-month follow-up (from 7 to 42 months) was completed. No statistically significant differences were observed postoperatively between the patients with and those without an epididymitis history in the patency rate (73.0% vs 81.7%, P = 0.243), sperm concentration (18 ［1.3－33.6］ vs 15.2 ［0.8－33.4］ ×10⁶/ml, P = 0.710), percentage of progressively motile sperm (27.5 ［0－46.1］% vs 19.3 ［0－41］% (P = 0.592) or rate of spontaneous pregnancy (24.3% vs 38.9%, P = 0.104).

CONCLUSION

Microsurgical vasoepididymostomy is an effective method for the treatment of epididymal obstruction, and epididymitis history does not affect the results of the strategy.