Avoiding Unkind Cuts

FEW PEOPLE THINK THAT RADIOLOGISTS CAN ACTUALly treat medical conditions; they handle the X rays. Maybe patients should think again, particularly men with an infertility problem: varicose veins in the testes. About 15% of men have such abnormalities, which apparently heat the testicles and damage sperm.

Radiologists can often solve the problem. Using their skill with X-ray imaging to guide them, they make a needle puncture into a vein in the groin and thread a very thin tube to the testes. The doctors then seal off the varicose veins with coils or chemicals that are sent through the tube. Johns Hopkins researchers reported that of 71 couples in which the man had had the procedure and his partner no infertility treatment, 60% of the women got pregnant.