Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 14, 2026
Microscopic Varicocelectomy under Local Anesthesia as the Treatment of Varicocele
Published on: October 25, 2024
Significant decrease in sperm deoxyribonucleic acid fragmentation after varicocelectomy
Philip Werthman1, Regina Wixon, Kay Kasperson
1Center for Male Reproductive Medicine, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Objective:
To measure sperm DNA integrity values before and after varicocelectomy in patients with elevated preoperative levels of sperm DNA fragmentation.
Design:
Retrospective.
Setting:
Private urology clinic.
Patient(S):
Eleven patients with grade 1, 2, or 3 varicocele.
Intervention(S):
Varicocelectomy.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Sperm DNA fragmentation values were assessed before and after varicocelectomy.
Results(S):
Ninety percent of the patients showed a significant decrease in sperm DNA fragmentation levels.
Conclusions(S):
Although this study was small, 10 of the 11 patients with varicocele showed a significant decrease in sperm DNA fragmentation after varicocele repair. Elevated sperm DNA fragmentation has been shown to have a significant negative effect on pregnancy outcome with use of in vivo, IUI, routine IVF, and to a lesser extent intracytoplasmic sperm injection fertilization; therefore pregnancy outcome may improve after varicocelectomy.
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