Male Infertility - Gat Goren

As I scanned this morning's paper, I came across a mention of the Gat Goren method for treating varicocele - it was listed as one of Israel's recent important achievements.

Among the differences between the Gat Goren method and traditional treatment of varicocele are the short recovery time and the less painful medical procedure. This article writes:

DURING THE procedure, which is performed under local anesthesia, Goren inserts a catheter through a vein in the upper thigh. The catheter is used to inject a fluid that selectively closes off all the malfunctioning veins, thereby enabling the testicular tissues to recover and begin to produce normal sperm in normal amounts. It takes one to two hours (plus half an hour of rest before going home), and causes virtually no discomfort. Within 48 hours, the patient resumes his normal routine.

"In the conventional procedure, in which men undergo general anesthesia in an operating room, a urological surgeon performs a left high ligation and blockage of the central vein. It takes 20 minutes, but urologists didn't do the right side, or weren't aware of the whole network of bypasses in the system, so in a significant number of cases, it didn't solve the problem," Gat says. But the Gat-Goren catheterization method locates and treats defective blood vessels on both sides and improves oxygen supply necessary for the production of sperm cells.

Apparently, men are coming to Israel from all over the world to have this procedure performed.