FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION VERSUS OPEN BIOPSY FOR TESTICULAR SPERM RECOVERY - A CONTROLLED-STUDY IN AZOOSPERMIC PATIENTS WITH NORMAL SPERMATOGENESIS

This retrospective controlled study aimed at comparing two techniques for recovering testicular spermatozoa in azoospermic patients undergoi ng intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), 102 men suffering from inf ertility because of obstructive azoospermia had ICSI using testicular spermatozoa recovered either by open excisional biopsy (n = 51), or by fine needle aspiration (FNA) (n = 51), A higher average number of spe rmatozoa were recovered after open biopsy than after FNA, but no signi ficant differences in either fertilization rates or cleavage rates wer e observed after ICSI with spermatozoa retrieved by the two techniques . Neither was there any significant difference in ongoing pregnancy an d implantation rates: in the FNA group, these figures were respectivel y 19.6% per cycle and 7.8 % per embryo transferred and in the open bio psy group 21.6 and 7.1%. We conclude that ICSI with testicular spermat ozoa recovered by FNA yields results comparable to those obtained with spermatozoa recovered by open biopsy in azoospermic patients with nor mal spermatogenesis, However a prospective study is needed to confirm the present results and to assess recovery rates and patient comfort f or the two methods.