New treatment offers impotent men fresh hope

A new interventional radiology treatment being offered at Al Ain Hospital has given hope to patients suffering from male sexual dsyfunction. The new procedure, which takes about five hours, does away with the need for surgery. Instead, it involves only a small incision in the skin around the groin, an Al Ain Hospital official said. An estimated 52 per cent of men find themselves battling some form of sexual dysfunction or impotence between the ages of 40 and 70. "Impotence is a frustrating condition that affects not only the individual, but the partner, family, and [one's] job performance," George Jepson, chief executive officer of Al Ain Hospital, said. Vascular diseases Jepson added that vascular diseases can restrict the flow of blood to the male sexual organ and cause disorders in as many as 50-70 per cent of men. The treatment being offered by the hospital has a proven success rate in dealing with such disorders, he said. Professor Gerhard Schwab, medical director at the hospital, said many clinical conditions are associated with vascular diseases and could possibly contribute to sexual dysfunction. "They include coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, high cholesterol, cigarette smoking, and obesity," he said. Testicular varicoceles, where there is an abnormally large vein in the scrotum, is the leading cause of male infertility and a relatively common condition that tends to affect young men usually in their twenties or thirties. Fertility boost A varicocele can cause pain or atrophy (shrinkage of the testicle), or fertility problems. It has been proven that pregnancy rates in infertile couples improve after varicocele repair by about 30-50 per cent. Patients are first seen by urologist, who will do a full assessment for the condition. Then they get referred to the radiology department for more testing and an embolisation procedure to facilitate proper blood flow to and from the reproductive organs. This is followed by another procedure, called angio-embolisation, which is carried out through a tiny three millimetre-incision in the groin to reach the abnormal veins. The embolisation procedure is simple, effective, minimally invasive, and cost-effective. It takes only one hour and the patient can go home three hours after the procedure, the doctor said.