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Men are urged this week to think about their health and to take action to prevent health conditions that could affect them. KSMU’s Michele Skalicky has more…
It’s National Men’s Health Week, a time set aside to raise awareness of preventable health problems and encourage early detection and treatment of disease among men and boys.Dr. Eric Guilliams, a urologist with St. John’s Health System, says one of the most commonly screened for diseases is prostate cancer…
"We do recommend a yearly prostate exam as well as a blood test, which is called a psa, every year. And we usually recommend thosestarting at ages 40 and 45."
As with any cancer, prostate cancer is more treatable the earlier it’s caught. That’s why regular screenings are important.These days, Dr. Guilliams and his colleagues are using robotic surgery to treat prostate cancer…
"Well, the way the robot works is the surgeon is actuallyacross the room sitting at a console looking into a 3-D high definition that's magnified ten-fold. Most folks have heard of lathroscopic surgery, well, this is simply lathroscopic surgery that has robotic assistance. And the way that it works is the surgeon makes small incisions and places small instruments into the patient, and the robot is actually wheeled up to the patient's bed, and the robotic arms connect to the instruments, one of which is also a camera, and so the surgeon then goes over to the console, and every move that he makes is transmitted by the robot to the patient."
There are several advantages to using robotic surgery vs. open surgery. According to Dr. Guilliams, using robotic surgery for prostate cancer often results in shorter hospital stays…
"After an open procedure for prostate surgery, typically the patients are in the hospital two to three days. Most patients who have robotic prostate removal areable to be discharged on the day after surgery, so they only spend one night in the hospital."
There’s also a significant decrease in blood loss with robotic surgery…
"Historically, when we did open prostate surgery,we would ask the patient to go to the blood bank twice to donate two units of their own blood because transfusion was not unnecessary, and with the robotic assisted approach, transfusion is quite rare."
Dr. Guilliams says patients have a quicker return to routine activity due to the small incisions, and they have shorter catheter times.But he says it hasn’t been proven that robotic surgery results in fewer side effects than open surgery…
"We have not yet proven it to be superior to open surgery when it comes to erectile dysfunction and incontinence."
However, Guilliams says he’s seen a slight improvement in those areas with patients he’s operated on using robotic surgery.Other major health risks that men face include testicular cancer, colon cancer and heart disease.