Testicular Torsion Following Reperfusion Injury in Rat Model: Can Vitamin E Palliate this Injury?

This study seeks to investigate in a rat model the effect of vitamin E following reperfusion injury/testicular injury. Twenty (20) Wistar male rats weighing between 100-150g ranging in age from 4-7 weeks were used for this study and were grouped into five groups of four rats each. Group one was administered with intramuscular (IM) administration of vitamin E (200mg/kg bw) and undergone testicular torsion with reperfusion for an hour, group two rats had concurrent administration of vitamin E (200mg/kg bw) followed by testicular torsion with reperfusion for an hour, while group three undergone torsion and was treated with vitamin E (200mg/kg bw) after an hour of testicular torsion at 7200 clockwise rotation. Group four undergone testicular torsion for an hour after which detortion was done and reperfusion was allowed for another one hour. While group five served as the control rats. At the end of the experiment testes of all the treated rats were exposed and semen was obtained for sperm characteristics (sperm motility and count). The results showed that following testicular torsion, sperm motility was reduced significantly while sperm count was unaffected. Intramuscular administration of vitamin E following torsion showed insignificant decrease (p>0.05) in sperm function.