Vasovasostomy has been a popular procedure in tandem with the high incidence of vasectomy. Although various postoperative pregnancy rates been published, the majority of the reports lack data on patients lost to follow-up. In an attempt to assess
the
true success rate and the true fate of those "lost to follow-up," we retrospectively evaluated 143 consecutive patients who underwent microsurgical vasovasostomy and prospectively attempted to contact patients previously lost to follow-up in
order
to
assess the outcome of their treatment. Of the total series, 90 patients had semen analyses performed within one year after the procedure and were followed regularly, while 53(38%) were lost to follow-up. On the 90 patients who were followed,
63(70%)
achieved a pregnancy with their partner. Of the 53 patients lost to follow-up, 21 responded to our efforts at recontact, of whom 15(68%) achieved a pregnancy.
We concluded that although a large proportion of vasovasostomy patients are lost to follow-up, inclusion of such patients does not significantly alter the pregnancy rate.
|