Diagnosis and treatment of ejaculatory duct obstruction in male infertility.

OBJECTIVE: To discuss the diagnosis and treatment of ejaculatory duct obstruction in male infertility. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty-four males were treated for ejaculatory duct obstruction between 1994 and 1998 in our clinic. Patients' age varied between 20 and 40 (mean=29). Ejaculatory duct obstruction was considered in patients with low to normal ejaculate volume, azoospermia or oligospermia, decreased motility, normal serum gonadotropin and testosterone levels, absent or low fructose in the ejaculate and evidence of obstruction on transrectal ultrasonography. The definitive diagnosis was made by the absence of efflux of methylene blue injected through the vas during cytoscopy. All the patients were subjected to transurethral resection of ejaculatory ducts and spermograms before and 3 months after resection were compared. RESULTS: Before transurethral resection mean sperm count was 1.66x10(6)/ml compared to 25.4x10(6)/ml postoperatively. The difference was statistically significant (p=0.001). After the operation, 58.3% of the cases had improvement in sperm motility, and 62.5% had increased ejaculate volume. No significant complications occurred, and in only 1 (4.17%) patient, there was persistent hematuria. After a mean follow-up period of 9 (6-18) months, 6 (25%) pregnancies were noted. CONCLUSION: Although transurethral resection is an effective method for the treatment of ejaculatory duct obstruction, the pregnancy rate is low, which could be related to the hazardous effects of urinary reflux into ejaculatory ducts or functional abnormalities of seminal vesicles.

Isolated renal and retroperitoneal hydatid cysts.

Four patients (3 male, 1 female) with isolated renal and 1 female patient with isolated retroperitoneal cysts were reviewed. The mean age of the patients was 46 (25-64). The most common presenting symptom was pain. Two cases were discovered incidentally by the observance of renal calcification on abdominal x-ray. Indirect hemagglutination test was positive in all cases but eosinophilia was present only in 1 (20%) case. Nephrectomy was performed to 1 patient who presented with hydaturia and had a large communicating cyst involving most of the kidney. Total cystectomy was performed in other renal cysts. Total cystectomy with wide excision of the involved muscle was performed to the retroperitoneal hydatid cyst. Patients were followed by an average of 23.8 (9-50) months with indirect hemagglutination test and USG. No evidence for recurrence was found up to date.

Tubularized incised plate urethroplasty for distal and mid-penile hypospadias.

Tubularized incised plate urethroplasty was performed to repair 20 distal and 5 mid-penile hypospadias cases. In distal hypospadias repair meatal stenosis occurred in 1 patient and urethral fistula in another. The overall complication rate in this group was thus 10%. Among midpenile hypospadias cases meatal stenosis was observed in 1 (20%) patient. As a conclusion, tubularized incised plate urethroplasty was found to be a successful method for treating distal hypospadias and encouraging results were obtained in mid-penile hypospadias cases.

Clinical, urodynamic and endoscopic characteristics of the stanford pouch ileal neobladder constructed with absorbable staples.

PURPOSE: The clinical, urodynamic and endoscopic aspects of the Stanford pouch ileal neobladder formed with absorbable staples were investigated. METHODS: A Stanford pouch ileal neobladder was formed using absorbable staples after radical cystoprostatectomy in 30 male patients with the diagnosis of muscle invasive carcinoma of the bladder between 1995 and 1998. The mean age of the patients was 62 (range 41-70) years. Patients were followed with arterial blood gas, serum biochemistry, pouch cystography, urodynamic tests and endoscopy. RESULTS: Five (16.7%) patients had early postoperative complications and three were related to the neobladder. One year postoperatively, low grade (I, II) vesicoureteral reflux was present in five (16.7%) cases. The mean preoperative and 6 months postoperative serum creatinine levels were 1.07+/-0.3 mg/dL and 1.2+/-0.4 mg/dL, respectively, but the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.1). Six months postoperatively the mean serum chloride level was 109+/-4.5 (range 100-113) mmol/L and the mean arterial blood pH was 7.37+/-0.2 (range 7.3-7.4). Two (6.7%) patients required oral alkaline supplementation because of high chloride levels. All the patients except one were continent throughout the day after 1 year. However, nocturnal enuresis was present in 25 (83.3%) cases. The pouch capacity was increased gradually up to 12 months postoperatively and the mean pouch capacity 12 months postoperatively was 460+/-95.8mL. Micturition occurred spontaneously in most patients while some needed abdominal straining. None of the patients had a residual urine of more than 60 mL. The mean maximum flow rate 6 months postoperatively was 9.8 (range 5.4-15.0) mL/s. After 6 months the stapled edge was noticed as a nodular line. One year postoperatively only a white scar could be observed at the suture line. CONCLUSION: The Stanford pouch ileal neobladder constructed using absorbable staples was able to provide a good capacity low pressure reservoir with a low rate of complications.

Prostate cancer and neuroendocrine differentiation.

A retrospective study was conducted in 41 patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostate to investigate the correlation between pathological stage, Gleason score and neuroendocrine differentiation in order to evaluate the prognostic significance of neuroendocrine differentiation. Patients' ages ranged from 50 to 84 (mean 69.1) years. Clinical staging was done by rectal examination, serum PSA, transrectal ultrasonography, bone scan and abdominal CT followed by pathological staging after the operation. After that malignant prostatic tissue sections obtained from radical prostatectomy and transurethral prostatectomy specimens were stained with haemotoxylin-eosin and Gleason scores were determined. From each patient paraffin blocks representative of the primary prostate adenocarcinoma were chosen for immunohistochemical staining with monoclonal neuron specific enolase and chromogranin A antibodies for the determination of neuroendocrine differentiation. Neuroendocrine cells were found to be present in 53.66% of the patients. The incidence of neuroendocrine differentiation was higher in poorly differentiated (Gleason 7-10) tumours when compared to moderately and well differentiated tumours (Gleason <7) although not statistically significant (p=0.09). Although the percentage of neuroendocrine differentiation was greater in advanced prostate carcinoma (stage C, D) than localized (stage A, B) the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.18). Nevertheless, a significant correlation was present between Gleason score and pathological stage (p=0.002). In 34 cases followed for 5 years there was no relationship between the presence of neuroendocrine cells and 5-year tumour progression (p=0.41). However, significant increase in tumour progression rate was observed with increase in Gleason score (p=0.02) and pathological stage (p=0.00001). As a conclusion, no significant correlation was found between neuroendocrine differentiation and prognostic markers such as Gleason score and pathological stage in adenocarcinoma of the prostate.