I finally retired last September (2007) at vasectomy number 30,041. I have handed all my patient cards over to my successor Dr Christopher K Lekich. He has a background in eye surgery. He learnt and has improved upon my Open Ended Vasectomy technique.

Further Dr. Lekich has microsurgical experience and has trained in vasectomy reversal under the world-renowned Professor Earl Owen of Sydney and replacing French arms fame.

I can thoroughly recommend him and his staff, which include my daughter Kristi Errey who assisted me at 17,000 operations. Dr Lekich can be consulted for any follow up or if circumstances change, for vasectomy reversal at his dedicated modern facility at Metrocentre on the Gold Coast and at Annerley in Brisbane.

Dr. Bruce Errey

Skye's no limit... Earl Owen, left, with Vonda and Gary Witley and their son Skye, the result of Dr Owen's operation on Mr Witley. Photo: Robert Pearce

Reversing a vasectomy is just child's play

Their relationship had been going strong for more than a year, and Gary Riley and Vonda Witman were ready to shift their commitment up a gear. They began discussing marriage and children, but there was a big problem: Gary, the father of a grown-up daughter, had had a vasectomy 15 years earlier.

Undeterred, the couple approached doctors close to their home near Seattle, and when that yielded only pessimism they trawled the US to find a willing surgeon. Everywhere they met with the same reaction. Nobody would reverse the operation so long after it had been performed, saying the chances of success were negligible.

That was when they hit the Internet and found Earl Owen, a Sydney-based microsurgeon, who acknowledged that the time since the original procedure was a factor but who nevertheless offered them odds of about three to one that they would be able to conceive.

Three months later they flew to Australia, where they were married and the surgery was performed.

That was in 1998. Last week they flew in again, this time with 19-month-old son Skye Witley (his parents combined their surnames after their wedding).

"There were some moments of doubt," Ms Witley, 37, said. "There were times when we thought it was never going to happen." But 17 months after the operation Ms Witley became pregnant. It was very close to Dr Owen's advice that they should allow a month for every year the vasectomy had been in place.

Sperm production continues after the vas deferens, the vessel that releases sperm into semen, has been severed. After vasectomy the eight-metre epididymis, a narrow tube where sperm is produced and matured, is no longer regularly cleared and can become clogged.

In most cases this resolves and sperm is present in semen again after 10 weeks, said Dr Owen, who claims a success rate of 95 per cent in a vasectomy five years old or less, falling to 60 per cent after 20 years.

The most common time for men to request a reversal is between six and 10 years after vasectomy, a reflection on the time it takes to go through divorce and make a new commitment.

"Men who have vasectomies are always considerate men, who had chosen to take the contraceptive load off their partners and in new relationships were open to the idea of more children," said Dr Owen, who transplanted a dead man's hand to an amputee, Clint Hallam, three years ago.

Demand for vasectomy has been static in the past decade. Medicare statistics show almost 30,000 procedures are performed annually. While figures are not kept on reversals, doctors say more men are requesting them.

Stephen Stening, former president of the Urological Association of Australasia, said a man's age also affected the outcome of a reversal, particularly in older men whose operation was done a long time ago.

It was possible that men produced antibodies that killed off their sperm, although this had never been fully explained.

The skill of the surgeon was another factor in the procedure's effectivenes, Dr Stening said. Most doctors quoted a success rate of only about 50 per cent.

Edith Weisberg, director of research at FPA Health, said despite improving reversal techniques, men still needed to consider it permanent.

People could be convinced they would never want more children, but change their minds if personal circumstances changed.

The SYDNEY MORNING HERALD.
June 24 2002

From Professor Earl Owen

Dr. Christopher Lekich has become my successor for microsurgical vasectomy reversals after a personal two year extensive training period with me. This follows him passing the Microsurgical Institute’s Master Class in Microsurgery, following attending one of the Institute’s International Courses. He has developed a slavish attention to detail using our unique obsessive non-traumatic meticulous three layered closure technique (The Owen Technique) pioneered and perfected over the past 40 years to preserve the viability of even the innermost cells of the vas tissues, so as to maximize reversal success.

Dr. Lekich is extremely well suited to be specializing in microsurgical vasectomy reversals due to his interest in managing men’s health and their contraceptive needs where he wisely uses the preferential “open-ended” procedure of Vasectomy. He was adept at using the high powered Zeiss Motorized Double Operating Microscope in his previous 12 years experience with the delicate use of the Ophthalmic microscope in the field of retinal microsurgery.

Dr Lekich’s work with the Australasian College of Phlebology has resulted in further special fine skill acquisition utilizing a new and high-powered Ultrasound to treat diseased vessels in the legs. This ultrasound skill he now uses to non traumatically show all the scrotal contents in a unique preoperative assessment of and careful
planning for the reversal procedure. Furthermore, that Ultrasound is used to assess Patients who are referred to our Group when they have post vasectomy pain related disorders coming from our colleagues for treatment of their complications. 

Apart from Dr. Lekich’s special microsurgical skills, his patient management and communication skills have been increased by his further studies and graduation in law. These are proving to be invaluable in the patient consultation and consenting processes. His genuine concern for patients in all manner related to vasectomy related issues is well suited to his managing the specialized area of men’s fertility.

A variety of practitioners such as urologists, gynaecologists, plastic surgeons, general surgeons and others perform vasectomy reversals as one of their many interests. It is essential to perform a large number of cases a year to keep skill levels finely tuned. Dr. Lekich has specialized in microsurgical vasectomy reversals performing on average 14-16 cases a month. I have also trained him to perform one of the most delicate microsurgical procedures, the Epididymo-Vasostomy that I pioneered to enable men born sterile to make them fertile. There are a handful of microsurgeons in the world using this unique Owen technique. 

It is a delight to see that my life’s work developing Microsurgery operations, in particular the Owen 3 Layer closure for vasectomy reversal,  continued by Dr. Lekich. Assisting him at his operations down the double operating microscope thrills me as it is like watching my own fingertips at work. This could only have become possible by the unique extended training and apprenticeship which he has had to that added to the talent he already brings to surgery.

Professor Earl Owen
August 2009