david

My Uro who I really like has just taken the PVP course and will be
doing PVP as soon as the hospital buys the machine early next year. Is
there anything wrong with being his first or maybe 5th or 10th case?

He tells me that the skills he needs to do the PVP are the same as the
ones he has acquired from doing millions of TURP and from doing many
prostate ops witht the old style Neo yag lasers in the past. Therefore
he says that there is no loss to me in being one of the intial cases?

Is this right?

A good point is that he said he would fully support me if I wanted to
go to another doc who had done hundreds of PVP if I felt more
comfortable with that.

So should I go with my present uro? Who is the best PVP uro in
Southern California?

David

derry argue

As I understand it, he is correct. There was a post earlier from
a marketing specialist who suggested that Laserscope were
promoting their product in the wrong way as it is simply a new
tool to do an old job, not a completely new procedure. There is
natural resistance to something totally new. I think he is right
from what I've heard. The techniques are similar, the tools and
results very different.

Derry

mb

David:

I would not want to be anyone's first or even fifth case!

Just my opinion. It stands to reason that a surgeon gets better with
practice. Even with PVP, it would seem some minimal practice/experience
would be advisable.

Mel

lee m.

The fact that Laserscope requires 10 PVP procedures to have been completed
prior to a name being posted on their website suggests the manufacturers of
the equipment think that's the number required to become really proficient.

patrick

Lee,
I don't know where the 10 PVPs before being put on the laserscope website
came from. I don't think this is the case. In the past it was 5 but given
that over 11,000 PVPs were done this year, I don't think this is the case
anymore. Given that there are now over 400 doctors doing PVP, I think it is
a simple matter to find a competent one not too far from anywhere in the US.
Patrick

lee m.

This is the email response I received on 8/13/03 when I asked the question:

Our policy states that a urologist has to perform 10 successful GreenLight
PVP procedures before posting his contact on our "Find-a-doctor-feature" on
our website.

Thank you for your interest.

Martina Rueter
Marketing Manager - Surgical Products
Laserscope

patrick

Okay, Martina's is the authority on this.
btw, Martina is the person I first talked with 2 years ago when I first
heard of Laserscope. At the time Laserscope was just starting to do the
multi-center trial. She was great. Answered all my questions. Led me to
Dr. Te.

If you ever get a chance to talk with her, tell her a lot of guys all over
the world thank her for her efforts in helping them solve their BPH
problems.

Patrick

dr. laub in s barbara

frederic e henzi

David,

When it comes to doctors working on our bodies, only the very best seems to
acceptable? But how are we to measure who is the best or has the most
experience?
If you are comfortable with your euro, in my humble opinion, this is good
enough. Chances are, that the guy who does it for the first time, will try
harder than the guy doing three PVP's a day. We have had a post about a
surgeon who scheduled an operation and went out of town. Another case, the
surgeon did not proceed with the surgery because there was not enough time
to complete a big prostate. The patient was already under sedation.
I would make sure that your Dr will actually do the operation and find out
how much time he has allocated.

Good luck


Fred Henzi

david debar

There is not a black and white answer to your question. If you have
relatively small prostate and there are no complications a Uro with minimum
experience will probably not have any problems. That said, I must tell you
that the first Uro I went to had been doing the procedure for two years and


from Virginia to Florida where a much more experienced doctor (Dr. Lyn) did
the procedure with 100% success.

I am reminded of a conversation where I overheard a salesman recommending
which motorcycle helmet a customer should buy. He asked do you have a $20
head or do you have $250 head?
To me it was well worth the expense and trouble to find the most experienced
doctor I could.

Dave

P.S. I was very tempted to lean over to that salesman a say "He obviously
has a $20 head or he would not be riding a motorcycle." No flames please, I
have enjoyed riding a motorcycle with and without a helmet.