Imipramine for the treatment of sterility in patients following retroperitoneal lymph node dissection

The major long-term morbidity following retroperitoneal lymph node dissection is sterility resulting from sacrifice of the thoracolumbar chain or the hypogastric plexus during dissection of the iliac vessels at the bifurcation. Seven males who were devoid of sperm emission and ejaculation as a result of this kind of operation for testicular cancer were treated with imipramine 25 mg t.i.d. In 2 of the patients, antegrade ejaculation appeared during treatment with this drug. We feel that this success rate of 2 out of 7 calls for further studies, as the problem of these young men was considered hopeless until recently.