The diagnosis and treatment of the azoospermic patient in the age of intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Overview

Microsurgical reconstruction remains the treatment of choice for men with reconstructable obstructive azoospermia. Sperm retrieval techniques performed with ICSI are highly effective for men in whom reconstruction is not feasible. In men with nonobstructive azoospermia, the optimization of spermatogenesis with hormonal therapy and, when appropriate, microsurgical varicocelectomy can result in the appearance of adequate sperm in the ejaculate for ICSI. In men with persistent nonobstructive azoospermia, TESE with ICSI has provided encouraging results. Caution must be used when this ART is applied in couples in whom genetic aberrations are detected given certain inheritance of these anomalies, as the genetic consequences of this procedure have not been thoroughly elucidated. Just as the possibility of ICSI was thought to be inconceivable several decades ago, the advent of future sentinel discoveries will present the possibility for realization of achievements that now seem incredulous.