Effect of Varicocelectomy on Male Infertility
Varicocele is the most common cause of male infertility and is generally correctable or at least improvable by various surgical and radiologic techniques. Therefore, it seems simple and reasonable that varicocele should be treated in infertile men with varicocele. However, the role of varicocele rep...
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The Korean Urological Association
2014
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4231146/ |
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pubmed-42311462014-11-17 Effect of Varicocelectomy on Male Infertility Cho, Kang Su Seo, Ju Tae Review Article Varicocele is the most common cause of male infertility and is generally correctable or at least improvable by various surgical and radiologic techniques. Therefore, it seems simple and reasonable that varicocele should be treated in infertile men with varicocele. However, the role of varicocele repair for the treatment of subfertile men has been questioned during the past decades. Although varicocele repair can induce improvement of semen quality, the obvious benefit of spontaneous pregnancy has not been shown through several meta-analyses. Recently, a well-designed randomized clinical trial was introduced, and, subsequently, a novel meta-analysis was published. The results of these studies advocate that varicocele repair be regarded as a standard treatment modality in infertile men with clinical varicocele and abnormal semen parameters, which is also supported by current clinical guidelines. Microsurgical varicocelectomy has been regarded as the gold standard compared to other surgical techniques and radiological management in terms of the recurrence rate and the pregnancy rate. However, none of the methods has been proven through well-designed clinical trials to be superior to the others in the ability to improve fertility. Accordingly, high-quality data from well-designed studies are needed to resolve unanswered questions and update current knowledge. Upcoming trials should be designed to define the best technique and also to define how to select the best candidates who will benefit from varicocele repair. The Korean Urological Association 2014-11 2014-11-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4231146/ /pubmed/25405011 http://dx.doi.org/10.4111/kju.2014.55.11.703 Text en © The Korean Urological Association, 2014 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Cho, Kang Su Seo, Ju Tae |
| spellingShingle |
Cho, Kang Su Seo, Ju Tae Effect of Varicocelectomy on Male Infertility |
| author_facet |
Cho, Kang Su Seo, Ju Tae |
| author_sort |
Cho, Kang Su |
| title |
Effect of Varicocelectomy on Male Infertility |
| title_short |
Effect of Varicocelectomy on Male Infertility |
| title_full |
Effect of Varicocelectomy on Male Infertility |
| title_fullStr |
Effect of Varicocelectomy on Male Infertility |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Effect of Varicocelectomy on Male Infertility |
| title_sort |
effect of varicocelectomy on male infertility |
| description |
Varicocele is the most common cause of male infertility and is generally correctable or at least improvable by various surgical and radiologic techniques. Therefore, it seems simple and reasonable that varicocele should be treated in infertile men with varicocele. However, the role of varicocele repair for the treatment of subfertile men has been questioned during the past decades. Although varicocele repair can induce improvement of semen quality, the obvious benefit of spontaneous pregnancy has not been shown through several meta-analyses. Recently, a well-designed randomized clinical trial was introduced, and, subsequently, a novel meta-analysis was published. The results of these studies advocate that varicocele repair be regarded as a standard treatment modality in infertile men with clinical varicocele and abnormal semen parameters, which is also supported by current clinical guidelines. Microsurgical varicocelectomy has been regarded as the gold standard compared to other surgical techniques and radiological management in terms of the recurrence rate and the pregnancy rate. However, none of the methods has been proven through well-designed clinical trials to be superior to the others in the ability to improve fertility. Accordingly, high-quality data from well-designed studies are needed to resolve unanswered questions and update current knowledge. Upcoming trials should be designed to define the best technique and also to define how to select the best candidates who will benefit from varicocele repair. |
| publisher |
The Korean Urological Association |
| publishDate |
2014 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4231146/ |
| _version_ |
1613156354770337792 |