[Surprises during urological interventions due to incomplete medical histories]

Two men, aged 37 and 47 years old, visited the urologist because of secondary infertility. These underwent an examination whilst under general anaesthesia; the examination was converted to a vasovasostomy, as in both cases it was found that a vasectomy had previously been performed. A third man, 56 years old, wished to undergo vasovasostomy; a few months later he appeared to have pre-existent retrograde ejaculation after an earlier bladder neck incision. For various reasons, no adequate information about the psychosocial and medical history was available. These case histories stress the importance of all of the patient records being available prior to an intervention.