Spermiologic investigations before and after retrograde sclerotherapy of varicocele (preliminary communication)

A selected patient group (n = 17) with left-side varicocele was treated by retrograde sclerotherapy. Before and about six months after the treatment of varicocele the classical spermiogram, a computer aided sperm motion analysis, the acrosomal intactness, the maturity of nuclear proteins and the DNA-normality of the spermatozoa were examined. The sclerotherapy led to an increase of sperm concentration (P < 0.05), a significant improvement of sperm movement quality (P < 0.01; sperm motile efficiency and velocity straight linear), a significant increase of percentage of spermatozoa non-stainable by aniline-blue and with green fluorescence in the acridine orange test (P < 0.05). It can be concluded that the varicocele-treatment causes improvements of sperm-qualities which are not detected by the classical spermiogram.