[Morphometric and histologic studies of testicular biopsies in obstructive azoospermia]

271 testicular biopsies from patients with obstructive azoospermia and near normal germinal epithelium were investigated morphologically and/or histologically in a search for lesions due to obstruction. 529 testicular biopsies from patients with oligozoospermia and 50 testicles examined post mortem served as histological control. The morphometric data of the seminiferous tubules in cases of obstructive azoospermia were within the standard range determined histologically in normal controls. In 13.3% of cases with obstructive azoospermia and in 6.8% of patients with oligozoospermia, however, testicular biopsies revealed a remarkably constant lesion, i.e. groups of seminiferous tubules with ectasia and atrophy, densely packed and usually surrounded by some fibrotic tubules. The etiology of this lesion remains unclear, but it may represent acute focal atrophy of germinal epithelium due to obstruction by the adjacent fibrotic tubules.