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Vasectomy Postoperative Counseling

Physician Follow-up
1. Postoperative Care Handout describing below
2. Call patient to check on status on day 1 or 2 post-op
Pain reduction
1. Wear athletic supporter (jock strap) for first 3-4 days
2. Medications
  1. NSAID (e.g. Ibuprofen) for daytime use
  2. Consider Narcotic (e.g. Tylenol 3) for night pain
Postoperative Activity
1. Off Work for 1-3 days
  1. Day 1: Supine with ice on scrotum for 20 minutes/hour
  2. Day 2: Minimal activity but patient may shower
  3. Day 3: Activity as tolerated
2. Limited activity for 2 weeks
  1. No strenuous Exercise or risk of local trauma
  2. Sexual activity no more than twice per week
Indications to call office
1. Pain not relieved with Analgesics given
2. Scrotal swelling beyond expected
3. Persistant scrotal bruising beyond 2 weeks
4. Stitches still present beyond 2 weeks after procedure
5. Signs of scrotal infection
  1. Redness
  2. Swelling
  3. Tenderness
  4. Fever
  5. Pustular discharge from incision site
Post-Vasectomy Semen Analysis
1. Timing of samples
  1. First: 6 weeks after Vasectomy (10-15 ejaculations)
  2. Second: 3 months after Vasectomy (10-15 ejaculations)
2. Findings with successful Vasectomy
  1. Median time to loss of sperm motility: 3 weeks
  2. Median time to azoospermia: 10 weeks
  3. Rare non-motile sperm after 12 weeks
References
1. Pfenninger (1984) 30(4):177-84

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This page was written by Scott Moses, MD. This page was last revised before 5/10/08, prior to consistent tracking of revision date. This page was last published on 6/1/2008. Please send comments and questions to the editor. Contact information may be found on the page About the Family Practice Notebook. These pages are best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0.