Age as the only predictive factor for successful sperm retrieval in patients with Sertoli cell-only syndrome: A single center experience

Objective: To investigate the factors predicting the success of microdissection testicular sperm extraction (mTESE) in patients with Sertoli cell-only syndrome (SCO) Design: Retrospective study Setting: Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Turkey Subjects: We retrospectively reviewed the medical data of 462 patients diagnosed with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) undergoing the mTESE operation at our institution between May 2008 and June 2017. This study enrolled 106 patients diagnosed with NOA with SCO histopathology in testicular tissues. They were grouped into two groups as successful sperm retrieval through mTESE and unsuccessful ones. The two groups were compared regarding the patients' age, duration of infertility, testicular volume, body mass index, total serum testosterone, follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, estradiol and prolactin levels. Intervention: mTESE Main outcome measure: Sperm retrieval rate Results: The ages of the patients in the successful and unsuccessful groups were 31.86 +/- 4.87 and 35.12 +/- 5.19 years, respectively. On comparison of the groups, a statistically significant difference was found between the groups regarding the patients' age (p < 0.001). No other variables demonstrated a statistically significant difference. Conclusion: In this study, age was identified as the only factor predicting the success of mTESE in patients with SCO. It has been demonstrated that an increase in age negatively affects the success of mTESE in patients with SCO, and the chance of success is higher in patients with SCO undergoing mTESE surgery before 32 years of age.