Surgical solution to an intracorporeal nickel allergy.

A previously healthy 30-year-old man with a symptomatic varicocele underwent gonadal vein embolization using nickel vascular plugs. He developed a painful hypersensitivity to his nickel plugs and elected to pursue laparoscopic excision and proximal gonadal vein ligation. In the operating room, the gonadal vein was isolated from the ureter, and ligated proximal to the cephalad plug and distal to the caudal coil. His pain is completely resolved 5 months after surgery. Metal allergies are well documented in orthopedics and cardiology implants, but there are a limited number of case reports of metal allergies after varicocele embolization. Interestingly, nickel is the most common type of metal hypersensitivity.