Sympathetic orchiopathia--an experimental and clinical study.

An experimental and a clinical study have been performed to elucidate the nature of contralateral testicular damage following unilateral testicular injury--sympathetic orchiopathia. In an experimental study significant impairment of sperm production was produced by contralateral testicular damage which did not seem to be immunologically mediated or to involve the breakdown of the "blood-testis" barrier. In 5 subfertile patients with oligozoospermia and unilateral testicular damage, removal of the damaged testicle did not result in an improvement in their semen analysis.