NEW BREAKTHROUGH CAN REVERSE A VASECTOMY AND RESTORE A MAN’S VERILITY
Doctors at the University of Iowa College of Medicine have achieved a high rate of success in reversing vasectomies—a procedure that until now wasn’t often successful. The doctors have achieved an 85 percent success rate in rejoining the duct that carries sperm from each testicle to the urethra (vas deferens). The new method for reversal uses a laser to seal the rejoined ends of the duct. It also reduces the length and risk of the operation, and over half of the patients undergoing the new reversal surgery have gone on to father children.
New Technique For Easier Vasectomies
A new, no-scalpel operation developed in China may prove to be faster and less painful than a standard vasectomy. Experts say the new technique is just as effective as the old procedure and is much faster, taking only 5 to 10 minutes compared with a conventional vasectomy which takes 15 to 20 minutes. The new technique also usually does not require the use of stitches because it employs a tiny puncture instead of an incision.
Reports from doctors who have used the new technique indicate that their patients experience less bleeding and pain, both during and after the operation, compared with men who undergo standard vasectomies.
New Methods To Fight Male Infertility
Two new methods of identifying and combating male infertility provide encouraging news to men who have been unable to father children.
At the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, a new sperm antibody diagnostic kit is being developed. The kit will enable doctors to identify antibody-related infertility. According to medical experts, abnormal antibodies produced in the male that attack his own sperm can cause sterility. Antibodies in the female which attack all sperm can also cause sterility.
Doctors at the Iowa College of Medicine are currently using “laparascopic” surgery to remove a varicose enlargement of the veins of the spermatic cord. A varicocele is the most common cause of male infertility. With the new surgical technique, patients have recovered in three days instead of ten to fourteen days.
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