Varicocele embolization outcomes of primary or post-surgery recurrent varicoceles in children.
Bibliographic record
Abstract
## Introduction Varicoceles may cause pain, testicular atrophy, and potentially future infertility. Study to determine imaging and clinical outcomes of primary or post-surgery varicocele embolization (VE). ## Materials and Methods Study approved by the Research Ethics Board. Retrospective review of VE patients <=18 years old from January 2000 to December 2024. Demographics and procedure data collected. Imaging (vessel size) and clinical (symptoms and/ or testicular size) success, and reasons for post-surgery recurrence evaluated. ## Results 34 patients included (18 post-surgery). Mean age at surgery 13.8 (10.7-17.1) years and at embolization 14.8 (4.7-18.0) years. All varicoceles were left sided but 2 (bilateral). Clinically, 28 were grade III, 1 grade II, 2 contralateral grade 0 and 5 grade unavailable. VE indications were pain/discomfort in 19, testicular asymmetry >20%/contralateral atrophy/solitary testis in14, and patient/parental preference in 4. Bahren venography classification was: 12 - I, 7 - II, 11 - III and 4 - IV. Previous surgery included 4 laparoscopic artery +/- lymphatic sparing Palomo, 12 subinguinal artery +/- lymphatic sparing microsurgical and 2 unavailable. Aside from 4 patients, all tributaries/collaterals treated at venography were proximal to the level of varicocelectomy clips confirming surgical occlusion of the main vein. Procedure technical success was 94% (32/34). SIR minor complications occurred in 34.3% (11/32). Mean follow-up duration was 1 year (0.1-3.1; 2 lost to follow-up). Overall resolution/improvement noted in 97% (31/32), including symptom resolution/improvement in 18/20 and testicular asymmetry reduction in 8/9. ## Discussion VE has a high success rate with minor complications. Post varicocelectomy recurrence is predominantly related to collateral venous anatomy.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".