Morphological profile of testicular biopsies associated with infertility

Based on testicular biopsies examined at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the goal of this retrospective study is identification and systemization of the histopathological patterns of testicular biopsies received especially for investigating male infertility and further more to compare the findings of our study with similar studies in the literature.

Our study group consisted of 164 testicular biopsies, which were examined in the Department of Histopathology at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah, over a period of 10 years. The data was retrieved and analyzed and the available histopathological results were grouped into 8 different morphological categories.

The findings of the biopsies associated with infertility were complied as follows: 45 (27%) showed normal spermatogenesis of which 15% showed active spermatogenesis associated with duct obstruction, 41 (25%) with hypospermatogenesis, 39 (24%) showed end stage tubular sclerosis with interstitial fibrosis, 27 (16.5%) with germ cell aplasia (with or without focal spermatogenesis), 11 (7%) biopsies showed maturation arrest and only on biopsy were associated with karyotpic abnormalities.

A higher percentage of hypospermatogenesis and end stage tubular sclerosis with interstitial fibrosis was noticed in this study when compared with the other studies reported from Saudi Arabia. A high percentage (27%) of the biopsies show normal spermatogenesis with or without duct obstruction.