Drs. Marks and Burrows perform all of the vasectomy reversals in a dedicated operating suite with all the necessary microsurgical equipment and supplies to provide the best possible technical results with maximum safety and comfort. No one else uses their equipment or microsurgical instruments, assuring that everything is always in peak working condition and readiness.
SedationThe majority of our reversals are performed under "mild conscious sedation". This means you are given small amounts of intravenous sedatives and relaxing medications throughout the reversal to keep you relaxed and comfortable. You get all the advantages of these powerful relaxing medications without the risks and toxicity of deeper anesthesia .Some men prefer more sedation, while others wish to remain fairly awake and alert, often wishing to observe the procedure on a video monitor. Most of our patients relax quickly and doze off to a restful sleep throughout the reversal. With conscious sedation, you save the expense of a much deeper general anesthesia and avoid the post-procedure nausea and other risks and side effects of general anesthesia, such as heart toxicity and other rare but potentially serious complications often associated with stronger agents. While Drs. Marks and Burrows have used all anesthesia options over the years, they believe that their patients feel better and have a more uneventful recovery when they have mild conscious sedation to relax them and keep them comfortable during the reversal, in combination with plenty of local anesthesia agents. On the rare occasions when you or Drs. Marks or Burrows prefer general anesthesia or a deeper sedation, ICVR does have a board-certified anesthesiologists available.
Throughout and after the reversal, we monitor your heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, oxygen level and degree of sedation to insure your safety. Our goal is to keep you safe and comfortable throughout the reversal procedure.
If you have any questions regarding the sedation, we encourage
you to contact us for more information.
Sperm retrieval and cryopreservation options
We are very fortunate to have associated with our program the Arizona Andrology Laboratory and CryoBank, a federally certified laboratory for the evaluation and cryopreservation of sperm. This allows us to offer all of our patients the additional option for epididymal or testicular sperm retrieval and cryopreservation at the time of their vasectomy reversal, as well as complete semen analysis intra-operatively and post-operatively.
