Multiple Determinations of Sperm DNA Fragmentation Show That Varicocelectomy Is Not Indicated for Infertile Patients with Subclinical Varicocele

Table 1

Multiple determination of sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) in infertile males with nontreated grade I clinical varicocele (CV), surgically treated clinical varicocele (T-CV), nontreated subclinical varicocele (ScV), and surgically treated subclinical varicocele (T-ScV). Highly DNA degraded sperm (DDS) was also measured by the sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) assay. Median SDF values are given and ranges are bracketed. Pairwise comparisons were performed using the Mann-Whitney 𝑈 test.

Type of SDF assay	CV; (𝑛=15)	T-CV; (𝑛=19)	ScV; (𝑛=16)	T-ScV; (𝑛=10)	Fertile; (𝑛=21)
TUNEL (%)	31.60; (16.79–67.71)	23.65; (12.68–37.22)	31.38; (17.99–74.10)	28.95; (11.06–53.65)	13.14^§; (6.59–29.33)
SCSA (%)	22.11; (9.98–53.88)	14.39*; (7.70–32.19)	21.30; (12.94–74.48)	26.12; (8.99–68.77)	12.00^§; (5.00–27.31)
SCD (%)	30.50; (17.00–50.00)	23.00*; (11.00–39.00)	37.75; (19.50–78.00)	29.00; (24.00–70.00)	12.00^§; (4.00–20.80)
DDS (by SCD) (%)	17.00; (5.50–30.00)	13.00; (6.00–22.50)	19.50; (11.50–37.00)	17.25; (10.00–30.00)	1.20^#; (0.00–4.50)

^∗𝑃<0.05.
§Data from [19].
#Data from [23].