No-scalpel vasectomy

The no-needle vasectomy method was developed in China in 1974 by Dr Li Shunqiang of the Family Planning and Development Institute in Chongqing, Sichuan province. At that time China was working hard on birth control methods. Vasectomy was not popular because the classic method involved numerous complications and required hospital facilities. After the procedure, patients needed several days of observation in hospital. Dr Li developed a minimally invasive method which carried far fewer complications than the classic one. It could be performed even deep in the provinces, far from civilisation. For this purpose Dr Li devised special surgical instruments. Dr Li is regarded as the father of the No-Scalpel Vasectomy. It is to him and to Chinese medicine that we owe the invention of this minimally invasive method of contraception for men.

From its invention in 1974 to the present day, the no-scalpel vasectomy procedure has been modified and refined many times on millions of patients, which has brought it almost to perfection ? especially in the USA and Canada. Currently, according to the American Urological Association, the best variant is considered to be the method with electrocoagulation of the prostatic segment and bringing the open testicular end of the vas deferens outside the sheath of the spermatic cord. This method is somewhat more difficult because of the rich vascularisation of the spermatic cord.

Since the 1970s the no-scalpel method has been modified many times and today it is performed in dozens of variants.