The World Journal of Men's Health (Oct 2024)

Global Practice Patterns in the Evaluation of Non-Obstructive Azoospermia: Results of a World-Wide Survey and Expert Recommendations

  • Rupin Shah,
  • Amarnath Rambhatla,
  • Widi Atmoko,
  • Marlon Martinez,
  • Imad Ziouziou,
  • Priyank Kothari,
  • Nicholas Tadros,
  • Nguyen Ho Vinh Phuoc,
  • Parviz Kavoussi,
  • Ahmed Harraz,
  • Gianmaria Salvio,
  • Murat Gul,
  • Taha Hamoda,
  • Tuncay Toprak,
  • Ponco Birowo,
  • Edmund Ko,
  • Mohamed Arafa,
  • Ramy Abou Ghayda,
  • Vilvapathy Senguttuvan Karthikeyan,
  • Ramadan Saleh,
  • Giorgio Ivan Russo,
  • Germar-Michael Pinggera,
  • Eric Chung,
  • Missy Savira,
  • Giovanni M. Colpi,
  • Wael Zohdy,
  • Edoardo Pescatori,
  • Hyun Jun Park,
  • Shinichiro Fukuhara,
  • Akira Tsujimura,
  • Cesar Rojas-Cruz,
  • Angelo Marino,
  • Siu King Mak,
  • Edouard Amar,
  • Wael Ibrahim,
  • Puneet Sindhwani,
  • Naif Alhathal,
  • Gian Maria Busetto,
  • Manaf Al Hashimi,
  • Ahmed El-Sakka,
  • Asci Ramazan,
  • Fotios Dimitriadis,
  • Massimiliano Timpano,
  • Davor Jezek,
  • Baris Altay,
  • Daniel Suslik Zylbersztejn,
  • Michael YC Wong,
  • Du Geon Moon,
  • Christine Wyns,
  • Safar Gamidov,
  • Hamed Akhavizadegan,
  • Alessandro Franceschelli,
  • Kaan Aydos,
  • Vinh Nguyen Quang,
  • Shedeed Ashour,
  • Adel Al Dayel,
  • Mohamed S. Al-Marhoon,
  • Sava Micic,
  • Saleh Binsaleh,
  • Alayman Hussein,
  • Haitham Elbardisi,
  • Taymour Mostafa,
  • Emad Taha,
  • Jonathan Ramsay,
  • Athanasios Zachariou,
  • Islam Fathy Soliman Abdelrahman,
  • Osvaldo Rajmil,
  • Arif Kalkanli,
  • Juan Manuel Corral Molina,
  • Kadir Bocu,
  • Gede Wirya Kusuma Duarsa,
  • Gokhan Ceker,
  • Ege Can Serefoglu,
  • Fahmi Bahar,
  • Nazim Gherabi,
  • Shinnosuke Kuroda,
  • Abderrazak Bouzouita,
  • Ahmet Gudeloglu,
  • Erman Ceyhan,
  • Mohamed Saeed Mohamed Hasan,
  • Muhammad Ujudud Musa,
  • Ahmad Motawi,
  • Cho Chak-Lam,
  • Hisanori Taniguchi,
  • Christopher Chee Kong Ho,
  • Jesus Fernando Solorzano Vazquez,
  • Shingai Mutambirwa,
  • Nur Dokuzeylul Gungor,
  • Marion Bendayan,
  • Carlo Giulioni,
  • Aykut Baser,
  • Marco Falcone,
  • Luca Boeri,
  • Gideon Blecher,
  • Alireza Kheradmand,
  • Tamilselvi Sethupathy,
  • Ricky Adriansjah,
  • Nima Narimani,
  • Charalampos Konstantinidis,
  • Tuan Thanh Nguyen,
  • Andrian Japari,
  • Parisa Dolati,
  • Keerti Singh,
  • Cevahir Ozer,
  • Selcuk Sarikaya,
  • Nadia Sheibak,
  • Ndagijimana Jean Bosco,
  • Mehmet Serkan Özkent,
  • Sang Thanh Le,
  • Ioannis Sokolakis,
  • Darren Katz,
  • Ryan Smith,
  • Manh Nguyen Truong,
  • Tan V. Le,
  • Zhongwei Huang,
  • Muslim Dogan Deger,
  • Umut Arslan,
  • Gokhan Calik,
  • Giorgio Franco,
  • Ayman Rashed,
  • Oguzhan Kahraman,
  • Sotiris Andreadakis,
  • Rosadi Putra,
  • Giancarlo Balercia,
  • Kareim Khalafalla,
  • Rossella Cannarella,
  • Anh Đặng Tuấn,
  • Amr El Meliegy,
  • Birute Zilaitiene,
  • Marlene Lizbeth Zamora Ramirez,
  • Filippo Giacone,
  • Aldo E. Calogero,
  • Konstantinos Makarounis,
  • Sunil Jindal,
  • Bac Nguyen Hoai,
  • Ravi Banthia,
  • Marcelo Rodriguez Peña,
  • Dharani Moorthy,
  • Aram Adamyan,
  • Deniz Kulaksiz,
  • Hussein Kandil,
  • Nikolaos Sofikitis,
  • Ciro Salzano,
  • Andreas Jungwirth,
  • Surendra Reddy Banka,
  • Tiago Cesar Mierzwa,
  • Tahsin Turunç,
  • Divyanu Jain,
  • Armen Avoyan,
  • Pietro Salacone,
  • Ateş Kadıoğlu,
  • Chirag Gupta,
  • Haocheng Lin,
  • Iman Shamohammadi,
  • Nasser Mogharabian,
  • Trenton Barrett,
  • Yavuz Onur Danacıoğlu,
  • Andrea Crafa,
  • Salima Daoud,
  • Vineet Malhotra,
  • Abdulmalik Almardawi,
  • Osama Mohamed Selim,
  • Mohamad Moussa,
  • Saeid Haghdani,
  • Mesut Berkan Duran,
  • Yannic Kunz,
  • Mirko Preto,
  • Elena Eugeni,
  • Thang Nguyen,
  • Ahmed Rashad Elshahid,
  • Seso Sulijaya Suyono,
  • Dyandra Parikesit,
  • Essam Nada,
  • Eduardo Gutiérrez Orozco,
  • Florence Boitrelle,
  • Nguyen Thi Minh Trang,
  • Mounir Jamali,
  • Raju Nair,
  • Mikhail Ruzaev,
  • Franco Gadda,
  • Charalampos Thomas,
  • Raphael Henrique Ferreira,
  • Umit Gul,
  • Serena Maruccia,
  • Ajay Kanbur,
  • Ella Kinzikeeva,
  • Saad Abumelha,
  • Nguyen Quang,
  • Raghavender Kosgi,
  • Fatih Gokalp,
  • Mohammad Ayodhia Soebadi,
  • Gustavo Marquesine Paul,
  • Hesamoddin Sajadi,
  • Deepak Gupte,
  • Rafael F. Ambar,
  • Emrullah Sogutdelen,
  • Karun Singla,
  • Ari Basurkano,
  • Shannon Hee Kyung Kim,
  • Mohammad Ali Sadighi Gilani,
  • Koichi Nagao,
  • Sakti Ronggowardhana Brodjonegoro,
  • Andri Rezano,
  • Mohamed Elkhouly,
  • Rossella Mazzilli,
  • Hasan M. A. Farsi,
  • Hung Nguyen Ba,
  • Hamed Alali,
  • Dimitrios Kafetzis,
  • Tran Quang Tien Long,
  • Sami Alsaid,
  • Hoang Bao Ngoc Cuong,
  • Knigavko Oleksandr,
  • Akhmad Mustafa,
  • Herik Acosta,
  • Hrishikesh Pai,
  • Bahadır Şahin,
  • Eko Arianto,
  • Colin Teo,
  • Sanjay Prakash Jayaprakash,
  • Rinaldo Indra Rachman,
  • Mustafa Gurkan Yenice,
  • Omar Sefrioui,
  • Smit Paghdar,
  • Shivam Priyadarshi,
  • Marko Tanic,
  • Noor Kareem Alfatlawy,
  • Fikri Rizaldi,
  • Ranjit B. Vishwakarma,
  • George Kanakis,
  • Dinesh Thomas Cherian,
  • Joe Lee,
  • Raisa Galstyan,
  • Hakan Keskin,
  • Jana Wurzacher,
  • Doddy Hami Seno,
  • Bambang S. Noegroho,
  • Ria Margiana,
  • Qaisar Javed,
  • Fabrizio Castiglioni,
  • Raman Tanwar,
  • Ana Puigvert,
  • Coşkun Kaya,
  • Medianto Purnomo,
  • Chadi Yazbeck,
  • Azwar Amir,
  • Edson Borges,
  • Marina Bellavia,
  • Isaac Ardianson Deswanto,
  • Vinod K V,
  • Giovanni Liguori,
  • Dang Hoang Minh,
  • Kashif Siddiqi,
  • Fulvio Colombo,
  • Armand Zini,
  • Niket Patel,
  • Selahittin Çayan,
  • Ula Al-Kawaz,
  • Maged Ragab,
  • Guadalupe Hernández Hebrard,
  • Ivan Hoffmann,
  • Ozan Efesoy,
  • Barış Saylam,
  • Ashok Agarwal

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5534/wjmh.230333
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 42, no. 4
pp. 727 – 748

Abstract

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Purpose: Non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) represents the persistent absence of sperm in ejaculate without obstruction, stemming from diverse disease processes. This survey explores global practices in NOA diagnosis, comparing them with guidelines and offering expert recommendations. Materials and Methods:Materials and Methods: A 56-item questionnaire survey on NOA diagnosis and management was conducted globally from July to September 2022. This paper focuses on part 1, evaluating NOA diagnosis. Data from 367 participants across 49 coun-tries were analyzed descriptively, with a Delphi process used for expert recommendations. Results:Results: Of 336 eligible responses, most participants were experienced attending physicians (70.93%). To diagnose azoosper-mia definitively, 81.7% requested two semen samples. Commonly ordered hormone tests included serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) (97.0%), total testosterone (92.9%), and luteinizing hormone (86.9%). Genetic testing was requested by 66.6%, with karyotype analysis (86.2%) and Y chromosome microdeletions (88.3%) prevalent. Diagnostic testicular biopsy, distinguishing obstructive azoospermia (OA) from NOA, was not performed by 45.1%, while 34.6% did it selectively. Differ-entiation relied on physical examination (76.1%), serum hormone profiles (69.6%), and semen tests (68.1%). Expectations of finding sperm surgically were higher in men with normal FSH, larger testes, and a history of sperm in ejaculate. Conclusions:Conclusions: This expert survey, encompassing 367 participants from 49 countries, unveils congruence with recommended guidelines in NOA diagnosis. However, noteworthy disparities in practices suggest a need for evidence-based, international consensus guidelines to standardize NOA evaluation, addressing existing gaps in professional recommendations.

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