ABSTRACT
A case of infertility secondary to necrospermia was reinvestigated and reclassified as the "immotile cilia syndrome". The immotile spermatozoa were viable but motionless owing to an ultrastructural defect of the tail characterized by absence of microtubular dynein sidearms. There is no therapy for this congenital disorder and artificial insemination was performed.
PIP: A 24-year-old man presented for infertility after his wife of 5 years had undergone a battery of fertility tests, ruling out her role in the inability to conceive. Repeated analyses of this man's semen showed normal volume, count, and morphology, but 100% of the spermatozoa were immotile. The man's medical history showed no exposure to toxins temperature extreme, or urinary tract infections. Genitalia were normal. By trypan blue dye exclusion, the case was reclassified as immotile cilia syndrome, rather than necrospermia, because the immotile sperm were viable but motionless due to an untrastructural defect of the tail detected by electron microscopy and characterized by absence of microtubular dynein sidearms. This is a congenital disorder; artificial insemination was successfully performed.