Clinical experiences of microsurgical side-to-end epididymovasostomy for epididymal obstruction

Background: Some surgical treatments are performed for obstructive azoospermia in urology and good results have been reported. Of 61 azoospermic patients who visited our department of urology, nine were diagnosed as having epididymal obstruction of unknown etiology. Methods: We describe nine consecutive side-to-end epididymovasostomy procedures performed on these patients. These procedures are microsurgical two-layer anastomosis. Results: Of the nine men, five (55.6%) had sperm in the ejaculate postoperatively and up until publication, the pregnancy rate was 33.3% (three of nine). Conclusions: These results suggest that reconstruction of the seminal tract should be considered first for obstructive azoospermia.