Práctica de la vasectomía en un municipio urbano: Consideraciones prácticas para el seguimiento

objectives: to establish an adequate follow-up protocol based on time to azoospermia achievement after vasectomy. also, to review the rate of complications in our setting. methods: retrospective analysis of 391 men who underwent vasectomy. follow-up was performed by means of semen analysis 6 months after surgery, and then every 3 months until azoospermia was achieved. data of visits to the emergency unit at our centre were obtained within the first 30 postoperative days. results: during follow-up 567 semen analysis were performed. from 391 vasectomy interventions, 275 had at least one semen sample available and valid for processing. after the first 6 months from surgery, 41.1% men still presented nonmotile rare sperm in semen analysis, 9.7% after 9 months, and 4.7% after 12 months. if semen analysis was postponed from 6 to 9 months after surgery, a total yearly saving of 6,153.23 euro would be observed in our setting, but with the drawback of delaying the diagnosis of azoospermia in nearly 60% of men. overall complication rate was 3.1% (only one man required hospital admittance and re-intervention). no statistical difference was observed in operative time with regard to the presence or absence of urological complications. conclusions: the percentage of men not achieving azoospermia 6 months after surgery is notorious. vasectomy practice in our setting seems to be reliable and safe, with a limited rate of complications.