Objective: To evaluate histopathologic examination of the testis tissue from testicular sperm aspiration (TESA).
Methods: We analyzed the results of inverted microscopy and histopathologic examination of 96 samples of testis tissue from TESA, and compared the accuracy of the two methods in detecting sperm in the testis tissue.
Results: Among the 11 cases in which sperm was found by inverted microscopy, 9 were confirmed by histopathologic examination, and among the 57 cases in which sperm was not detected by inverted microscopy, 11 (19.3%) were found with sperm by histopathologic examination. Histopathologically, the cases in which sperm was not found by inverted microscopy included Sertoli-cell-only syndrome (n = 34), maturation arrest (n = 12) and hypospermatogenesis (n = 11).
Conclusion: Histopathologic examination may reveal sperm in the TESA testis tissue proved to be sperm-absent by microscopy, and thus offer valuable information for a second testicular sperm retrieval.