First Surgical Procedure Performed at UAMS 12th Street Health & Wellness Center

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Ramsey Ghaleb, left, Brian Rayburn, Juan Campos and his wife, and Bruno Machado take a moment to visit and celebrate after the first surgical procedure at 12th Street Health & Wellness Center.

Oct. 3, 2025 | A clinical team including a urologist, physician assistant (PA) and medical student worked together to perform the first surgical procedure Sept. 25 at the UAMS 12^th Street Health & Wellness Center.

Although the patient, Juan Campos, had some anxiety prior to the vasectomy, he expressed relief and satisfaction with the outcome.

Speaking through a Spanish-to-English translator — UAMS urologist Bruno Machado, M.D., who also led the care team — Campos said he felt no pain during the vasectomy and would recommend the procedure to any man who wants to have one. Machado also is an associate professor in the UAMS Department of Urology.

Ramsey Ghaleb, a fourth-year College of Medicine student, has served as men’s health director for the student board of the 12^th Street clinic for the last three years accompanied by Brian Rayburn, PA-C, who is part of the UAMS Department of Urology and serves as a preceptor at the clinic.

“Brian and I had been doing the free men’s health clinic nights for a couple of years and brainstorming ways to increase awareness when he approached me about offering vasectomies here,” Ghaleb said. “I was all for it and immediately started working on the logistics of the first surgical procedure to be done at 12^th Street.”

Because it was the first surgical procedure to be performed at the center, Ghaleb said it took about nine months to set up and receive approval to do it. The two met with Machado, who told them what supplies they would need, and Ghaleb in turn consulted with the student board, the center’s leadership and established the protocol. Rayburn earned the consent of the first patient to participate.

Located in Little Rock’s 12^th Street corridor just south of UAMS’ main campus, the 12^th Street Health & Wellness Center is a community-based, student-led, interprofessional clinic that provides free health screenings and health management services for people in the community. Physician- and faculty-supervised students from UAMS’ five colleges and graduate school staff the clinic.

Vasectomies are often performed as outpatient procedures in a clinical bed. Once Campos was in one of the private patient treatment rooms and a local anesthesia was administered, the vasectomy took about 30 minutes to perform.

Campos’ wife, who is diabetic and who with her husband has four children, was present during the operation. With Machado translating, Campos explained before the procedure that they do not want to have more children, and he wants to prevent his wife from getting sick from another pregnancy.

He also said he is concerned that a future baby could be diabetic as well. Before he left, the care team gave him a take-home semen analysis kit to confirm the vasectomy was completely successful.

The center provided the vasectomy for free, and Machado, Rayburn and Ghaleb would like to do more of the procedures in the future.

“I think we need to spread the word, so people know that UAMS is offering this service. It’s not only for Spanish-speaking people; anyone can come here and request a vasectomy,” Machado said. “There are some rules they have to follow, but that’s it. We are planning to perform one or two vasectomies per month to start, but we hope that can grow to one per week. The program’s success will depend on how the word gets out.”

Rayburn noted that the Department of Urology also aspires to create a vasectomy training program, where student providers can learn to perform the procedure so that after graduation they can offer it in rural areas where urological services are typically unavailable.