Ischämische Hodennekrose nach Vasektomie

Abstract

Taking the clinical case of a patient who developed unilateral testicular necrosis following vasectomy as a starting point, the early and late complications of this procedure are described based on a literature review.In the USA 7% of all men undergo vasectomy, as compared to 2% in Germany. Early postoperative complications include bleeding/hematoma (0.5-18%), infection (0.3-32.9%), epididymitis (0.4-6.1%), granuloma (0.07-90%), and rare complications such as vas deferens abscess, vesicular gland abscess, vasovenous fistula, testicular necrosis, arteriovenous fistula, pulmonary embolism, endocarditis, scrotal skin necrosis and Fournier's disease which mostly have been reported in the form of case reports. Late complications are chronic pain (0.5-18%), pain during sex (2.9%), hydrocele (0-4%) as well as spermatocele (1.6%). There is a failure rate of 4.3-16% as concluded from the number of patients with nonmotile sperm in the post-vasectomy semen analysis. The postoperative paternity rate is 0-4%.Bilateral vasectomy is a secure way of contraception; perioperative and late complications are on an average rare, however, with a range up to 90%. In individual cases severe complications occur, which should be detected at an early stage. Therefore a close follow-up should be maintained after this outpatient procedure. One should ask for risk factors of endocarditis or thrombosis preoperatively. The patient should be informed of the possible loss of a testicle because of the severity of this complication. Postoperative semen analysis is obligatory.

Review of vasocutaneous fistulas and other rare complications after vasectomy

“…A handful of cases deal with segmental testicular infarction [ 22 – 26 ], and only one described complete testicular necrosis [ 27 ]. Most of the patients present with acute testicular pain and scrotal swelling in the first few days following a vasectomy, although testicular infarction was found 2 years later on a routine scrotal ultrasound [ 24 ].…”