Affiliation:
1. Department of Andrology Center for Men's Health Department of ART Institute of Urology Urologic Medical Center Shanghai Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine Shanghai General Hospital Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai China
2. State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine Nanjing Medical University Nanjing China
3. Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery Shanghai General Hospital Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai China
4. Department of Urology Ningde Municipal Hospital of Ningde Normal University Ningde China
Abstract
AbstractBackgroundPediatric inguinal hernia repair (IHR) is a common cause of obstructive azoospermia (OA). Yet, the surgical treatment for this kind of OA remains difficult with poor fertility outcome.ObjectivesTo evaluate the safety and effectiveness of totally extraperitoneal laparoscopy‐assisted microsurgical vasovasostomy (VV) in the treatment of OA caused by pediatric bilateral IHR.Materials and methodsTotally, 37 patients with OA caused by pediatric bilateral IHR were enrolled in this study from March 2015 to December 2020 in Shanghai General Hospital. The clinical data and fertility outcomes were collected and analyzed.ResultsAll patients enrolled had a history of bilateral IHR at the age of 1–10 years old. The mean age of patients was 27 ± 4.31 (range: 18–35) years. Totally extraperitoneal laparoscopy (TEP) was applied in 31 patients for the exploration and retrieval of pelvic vas deferens end, and 30 of them underwent microsurgical VV successfully. Among the six cases where TEP was not applied, five cases underwent microsurgical anastomosis. Intraoperative exploration revealed that the location of vas deferens injuries included scrotum (2.70%, 1/37), inguinal canal (5.41%, 2/37), pelvic cavity (78.37%, 29/37), and multiple sites (13.51%, 5/37). The mean operation time was 339 ± 96.73 min (range: 130–510 min). There were no surgical complications. Thirty‐three cases were followed up for 5–48 months with four cases lost to follow‐up. The overall patency rate, pregnancy rate, and natural pregnancy rate were 75.86% (22/29), 46.67% (14/30), and 36.84% (7/19, 3 patients without family planning), respectively. And seven couples conceived through the assisted reproductive technique, two of which using fresh sperm in the ejaculate.ConclusionTEP laparoscopy‐assisted microscopic VV is an effective treatment for patients with OA caused by pediatric bilateral IHR.
Funder
National Key Research and Development Program of China
National Natural Science Foundation of China