Evaluation of Preincubation Time Interval in Testicular Biopsy to Obtain Optimum Sperm Parameters

OBJECTIVE In sever oligospermia; one of the paths used for surgical sperm retrieval (SSR) is to extract sperm via a testicular biopsy. The aim of our study is to determine the reliable time interval between testicular biopsy and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) procedure in order to obtain optimumsperm parameters (count, motility and normal morphology). MATERIALS AND METHODS This cohort study was carried out on 30 patients which were candidates for ICSI. After collection and keeping the samples obtained from the testicular biopsy in Ham's F10 environment, the concentration, motility and morphology of the sperm in each sample was evaluated immediately as well as 2 and 4 hours after processing. The Data were then compared with each other. For the statistical analysis, Friedman, Willcoxon and Cochran tests were used. RESULTS The mean of sperm concentration was 5.69 ± 6.14 million and the motility was10.83 ± 12.63% at 2 hours following biopsy which was significantly higher than those obtained after 0 and 4 hours of the biopsy (p <0.05). CONCLUSION The reliable preincubation time which resulted in the highest rate of spermatozoa parameters after testicular biopsy and before incubation was 2 hours.