The effect of lignocaine on sperm phagocytosis in the peritoneal fluid from women with or without endometriosis.

The study was undertaken to investigate a possible mechanism for reducing the phagocytosis of spermatozoa by leukocytes in the peritoneal fluid from women suffering from endometriosis. Peritoneal fluids were collected during laparoscopy from women undergoing laparoscopic sterilization or from women under investigation for cause of infertility where the laparoscopic findings were endometriosis. Prepared spermatozoa from one healthy man were incubated in vitro with peritoneal fluid with or without lignocaine. Samples from the incubations were studied daily and the number of viable and dead spermatozoa were counted. The number of free spermatozoa, not adhered to leukocytes, was significantly increased when incubated in human peritoneal fluid supplemented with lignocaine. Thus lignocaine contributes to increasing the number of free spermatozoa and maintaining the possibility of fertilizing an oocyte. For patients with endometriosis, treatment with lignocaine might be a means of increasing the chances of conception. A clinical study is in progress to evaluate this effect in vivo and to search for alternative methods of assisting the fertilization process.