VasClip

[moominmuppet]

>
> Access this story and related links online:
> http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=17444
>
> Vasclip Co. today at the annual convention of the
> American Urological
> Association in Chicago is launching Vasclip, a
> device the size of a grain
> of rice that offers a less painful and quicker male
> sterilization
> alternative to a surgical vasectomy, Knight
> Ridder/Kansas City Star
> reports. The clip, which blocks the flow of sperm,
> can be inserted in 10
> minutes or less, compared with the 30-minute
> vasectomy procedure, which
> involves cutting and cauterizing the vas deferens.
> In addition, a
> sterilization procedure involving vasclip may be
> easier to reverse than a
> vasectomy. The procedure, which costs approximately
> $350, currently is not
> covered by any insurance companies. Vasclip
> President and CEO David Elliot
> said that because the vasclip procedure is less
> expensive than a vasectomy,
> companies will likely decide to cover the procedure.
> The company has
> trained approximately 100 urologists and family
> practitioners to perform
> the procedure, and an additional 450 doctors have
> expressed interest in
> being trained, according to Elliott. Although
> Vasclip received FDA
> approval to sell the device in August 2002, the
> company decided to delay
> the product's release until a one-year clinical
> trial of the device was
> completed in order to provide urologists and other
> physicians with more
> authoritative results about the device, according to
> Elliott. The company
> also plans to conduct a follow-up clinical study on
> the reversibility of
> the procedure. Approximately 500,000 men in the
> United States undergo a
> sterilization procedure each year, according to
> Knight Ridder/Star
> (McCartney, Knight Ridder/Kansas City Star, 4/30).
>