Prostate Cancer Education and Support resource

Here’s a great resource for anyone dealing with Prostate Cancer. http://www.ustoo.org/

Improved treatment options for Kidney Stones

About 8-10% of Americans will be affected by kidney stones and men twice as often as women. Previously we talked about strategies to prevent kidney stones. Now let's talk about some treatment options. We can look for stones in several different ways. If you get to deal with the stone early you have a much better outcome and the Ambulatory Surgery Environment is very well suited for that. Watch this short video by Dr. Riemenschneider to learn about some of the very modern solutions to make a difficult problem easy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50bf-E5RSp0&list=PL218941D97CFDE66A&feature=share&index=1

Kidney Stone Prevention Strategies

As we head in to summer we see a rise in kidney stones. Kidney stones are caused by high levels of calcium, oxalate, and phosphorus in the urine. Medical conditions, family history, diet and not drinking enough fluids are just a few of the many causes of kidney stones. If you’re prone to getting kidney stones or want to do all you can to avoid them, watch this short video by Dr. Riemenschneider about prevention strategies. http://youtu.be/5ezftFuT8vg

AUA Annual Meeting has started

The American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting is being held this year in Orlando Florida running from May 16 – 21, 2014. The AUA sets the highest standards for urology education worldwide. Now in its 109th year, the AUA Annual Meeting is the largest gathering of urologists in the world and provides unparalleled access to groundbreaking research, new guidelines and the latest advances in urologic medicine.

Erectile Dysfunction options

Erectile dysfunction or ED is the consistent inability to sustain an erection sufficient for sexual intercourse. It can be a total inability to achieve an erection, an inconsistent ability to do so or a tendency to sustain only brief erections. Roughly 50% of men between the ages of 40 and 70 have erectile dysfunction. The causes of erectile dysfunction for the most part are physical. So what is an erection? An erection is an involuntary reaction in response to sexual stimulation and excitement. There are nerves, veins and arteries in the penis and it's the relationship between these structures that allow the erection to occur. When the chemicals are produced in the body due to sexual arousal they influence the muscles and blood flow in the penis. When it's not working properly there are ways that we can deal with this. Treatment options can include oral medications such as Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis or vacuum erection devices, injection therapy, urethral suppositories or penile implants. The oral medications can alter the chemical reactions normally produced in the body. Injection therapy is similar but allows for more concentrated higher dosing than the oral medications. When other treatment options don't work or there are other factors such as a radical prostatectomy, diabetes, trauma to the penis, severe venous leak or Peyronie’s disease then we have the option of a penile implant. A penile implant involves cylinders that fit into the erectile body, a reservoir that goes behind the abdominal wall and a pump that goes in the scrotum. The penile prosthesis is totally implanted. When an erection is desired the pump is manipulated to transfer fluid from the reservoir into the cylinders creating an erection. At the conclusion that pump is again manipulated allowing the fluid to transfer from the cylinders back to the reservoir. So there are options you just have to match the appropriate treatment to the patient.

AUA 2014

The 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association will be held in Orlando, Florida from May 16-21, 2014. http://www.aua2014.org

A few stats about prostate cancer.

More than 230,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014. Prostate cancer costs society more than $2.2 billion annually in Medicare costs not including drug costs. About 10,000 men are told they have advanced prostate cancer each year. The good news is that 2.5 million men in the United States are prostate cancer survivors.