Korean J Urol.
1993 Aug;34(4):648-653.
Diagnosis of subclinical varicocele using doppler stethoscope and its clinical significance
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Urology, National Police Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
- Recently there are many sophisticated diagnostic tools for subclinical varicocele, but its clinical significance is debatable. Using Doppler stethoscope, we evaluated the presence of subclinical varicocele and its possible impact on male infertility. Retrograde flow. through the internal spermatic vein on Doppler stethoscope was detected in 34 cases(27.9 %) on left side, 9 cases (7.4%) on right side and 5 cases(4.1%) on both sides. Comparing both testicular volumes, there was no significant difference between the cases with subclinical varicocele and normal finding on Doppler stethoscope. Semen analysis was done in 83 cases except the cases with their children. Among these cases, 3 had abnormal semen quality, in which only one case with decreased sperm count revealed high grade subclinical varicocele. This case taken high ligation of internal spermatic vein. but the semen quality was not recovered during follow-up period up to 7 months. These results suggest that the incidence of subclinical varicocele by Doppler stethoscope is relatively high and its effect on male fertility may not be significant. Therefore it may be assumed that the subclinical varicocele does not need to be detected and treated actively.
