THE VENOUS ANATOMY OF EXPERIMENTAL LEFT VARICOCELE - COMPARISON WITH NATURALLY-OCCURRING LEFT VARICOCELE IN THE HUMAN

Objective: To determine the effect of experimental left varicocele on the anatomy of the veins serving the rat testis and to compare that an atomy to known patterns of vascular drainage from the human testis wit h and without varicocele. Design: Vascular maps were made of the efflu ent vessels from the rat testis in the control animals and those with a 30-day experimental left varicocele. Consensus maps were arrived at and these were compared to published reports of the pertenent venous a natomy in humans with and without varicocele. Setting: Research labora tory. Results: The major route of blood leaving the rat testis was con firmed to be the spermatic vein, but nine common collaterals were also found to exist. Four of these collaterals became more pronounced with experimental varicocele as did several dilated perineal veins. These latter vessels all led to the iliac vein. The vasculature of the rat e xperimental varicocele model shares some important anatomical features with human varicocele anatomy. Conclusions: Varicocele in humans and in the rat models causes a redistribution of blood flow from a route p rimarily out to the spermatic vein to routes leading to the iliac vein . The redistribution is similar but not identical.