Do characteristic spermatozoal morphological abnormalities exist in patients who have undergone unilateral orchiectomy and preventive radiotherapy?
METHODS
We examined 16 men who had been subjected to unilateral orchiectomy owing to seminoma and to preventive radiotherapy, in order to investigate the morphologic abnormalities of the spermatozoa (headless and small-round-headedness) that may contribute to infertility.


RESULTS
The same morphologic abnormalities of the head and neck found in the semen samples of fertile men were also found in the semen samples of the patients, albeit in higher percentages; the morphologic abnormalities of the tail in the semen samples of the patients were similar to those of the fertile men, both qualitatively and quantitatively.


CONCLUSIONS
No specifically characteristic morphologic abnormalities of the spermatozoa were detected in men who were subjected to unilateral orchiectomy and to preventive radiotherapy in comparison with fertile men. The percentage rate of morphologic tail abnormalities is not affected by preventive radiotherapy.
Panidis
Dimitrios
D
Third Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Rousso
David
D
Matalliotakis
Ioannis
I
Kourtis
Anargyros
A
Mavromatidis
Georgios
G
Mamopoulos
Michael
M
Koumantakis
Evgenios
E
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D009919:Orchiectomy; D018239:Seminoma / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013076:Sperm Count; D013081:Sperm Motility / Q000528:radiation effects; D013082:Sperm Tail; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000528:radiation effects; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery