L. Lund et al., BIOMECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF NORMAL AND VARICOSE INTERNAL SPERMATIC VEINS, Scandinavian journal of urology and nephrology, 32(1), 1998, pp. 47-50
To investigate possible differences in biomechanical properties betwee
n varicose spermatic veins and controls. During surgery on 12 patients
for grade 3 left-sided varicocele testis, 2 cm of the vein was obtain
ed for comparison with: (i) samples of the left internal spermatic vei
n taken from the same anatomical localization from 8 patients without
scrotal disease, and (ii) samples from the right internal spermatic ve
in from 7 other patients also without scrotal disease. The biomechanic
al properties of ring shaped venous specimens were investigated by loa
ding the specimen at a constant deformation rate until rupture. The re
lative amounts of collagen in the specimens were determined as the con
tents of hydroxyproline. There was a significant difference between va
ricocele testis/right spermatic vein in UC (unit collagen), F-max (max
imum strength), Strain (ultimate extensibility) and E-fail (relative f
ailure energy), but not in LD (diameter) and Tan-a (stiffness of the s
pecimen). There were no significant differences between left and right
spermatic vein in LD, UC, F-max, Strain, Tan-a and E-fail. There was
a significant difference in LD between varicocele testis/left spermati
c vein, but no relationship in UC, F-max, Strain, Tan-a and E-fail. Bi
omechanical analyses of the spermatic veins from patients operated for
varicocele seem to support the hypothesis that a difference in biomec
hanical properties plays a part in the development of varicocele becau
se a significant increase in extensibility of varicocele samples was f
ound compared with normal right spermatic vein samples.