THE LONG-TERM OUTCOME FOLLOWING SPECIAL CLEARANCE AFTER VASECTOMY

Summary –Between 1980 and 1985, 6067 out‐patient vasectomies were performed under local anaesthesia at the Elliot Smith Clinic in Oxford. During this period 151 men (2.5%) were given a “special clearance”. This sanctioned the discontinuation of other forms of contraception despite the persistence of scanty (< 10,000/ml) sperm in 2 consecutively examined semen samples at least 7 months after vasectomy. These men have been reviewed and further specimens of semen requested after a minimum follow‐up of 3 years (range 3–8); 50 patients supplied a specimen and all except 1 were azoospermic. No pregnancies attributable to failure of the vasectomy have been identified. © 1990 British Journal of Urology