title: Is it useful to operate on adolescent patients affected by left varicocele?
abstract: In order to consider the possibility of avoiding seminal disorders induced by varicocele at puberty, we evaluated 200 patients who were operated on for left varicocele at adolescence. Seventy-five of our 200 adolescent patients had evaluations of seminal fluid prior to their varicocelectomy. Of these patients, 75 were re-evaluated at the age of 21. In this latter group of patients, we observed 24 cases of hydrocele (32%) and 9 cases of varicocele recurrence (12%). These data were compared to 75 patients first presenting with a varicocele at 21-25 years of age. If we exclude the cases with azoospermia, we observed the presence of altered seminal fluid in 35 (46.7%) of the operated at adolescence patients and in 42 (56%) of the adult patients with varicocele. These data support the hypothesis that operating on patients in adolescence may result in maintenance of fertility potential.
authors.affiliation: Studio di Andrologia e di Chirurgia Andrologica, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pozza
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gregori
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ossanna
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amodeo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Malizia
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marchionni
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D014646:Varicocele / Q000601:surgery*