Is it useful to operate on adolescent patients affected by left varicocele?

In order to consider the possibility of avoiding seminal disorders induced by varicocele at puberty, we evaluated 200 patients who were operated on for left varicocele at adolescence. Seventy-five of our 200 adolescent patients had evaluations of seminal fluid prior to their varicocelectomy. Of these patients, 75 were re-evaluated at the age of 21. In this latter group of patients, we observed 24 cases of hydrocele (32%) and 9 cases of varicocele recurrence (12%). These data were compared to 75 patients first presenting with a varicocele at 21-25 years of age. If we exclude the cases with azoospermia, we observed the presence of altered seminal fluid in 35 (46.7%) of the operated at adolescence patients and in 42 (56%) of the adult patients with varicocele. These data support the hypothesis that operating on patients in adolescence may result in maintenance of fertility potential.