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importance of surgeon's experience and ed

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Posted 5/17/2012 11:24 AM (GMT 0)
Surgeon's experience has a great deal to do with ed.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120516152242.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

 

Posted 5/17/2012 12:58 PM (GMT 0)
The article pretty much confirms what everyone here believes.

I always like to throw in the part about making sure the surgeon didn't recently:
Find his wife cheating
Lose a loved one
File for bankruptcy

etc....
In other words, even the best of surgeons have bad days.... and medium level surgeons will have their best day....
Posted 5/17/2012 1:33 PM (GMT 0)
I guess most things in life are a roll of the dice. However, it helps to have them loaded a bit.
Posted 5/17/2012 1:48 PM (GMT 0)
Something I always wonder about. With so many surgeons (thousands) giving robotics a go, where are their failures and disasters that they are producing to get to the golden ring of 1000 surgeries before being "proficient"? You'd think we would hear from and about them constantly here on the 'support' site. All this reminds me that even with what we think is a large group here, we are just a small drop in the bucket of people who are living the same thing we do, but never come near us. Not knocking the idea of surgeons, experience and gained skills with repetition, mind you.

devil tongue
Posted 5/17/2012 2:09 PM (GMT 0)
It's one of those hypocrisies I recognize in myself: I chose an experienced surgeon at a center that prides itself on having pioneered robotic surgery. But if I had been there 10 years or so ago and they had said "We have this new technique we want to try out on you", I wouldn't have been able to get out of there fast enough.

There must be a lot of pioneers out there who are braver than I am.
Posted 5/17/2012 2:38 PM (GMT 0)
Agreed. While it is not in my personality to be a pioneer (I prefer "stacking the odds in my favor" with known risk reductions), I appreciate those who have gone before me. God bless the pioneers!

The other thing to keep in mind is that the techniques are continually improving.  Today's surgical outcomes are very likely, on average, better for continence and erectile function than those outcomes for similar cases just a few years ago.

 

Post Edited (Casey59) : 5/17/2012 8:41:52 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 5/17/2012 3:08 PM (GMT 0)
My nerve bundles were not spared. My wife remembers the surgeon stating at one point that he took pride in his skill at removing the nerves. (I don't remember the conversation, the bleeding complications during surgery affected my memory and that entire period of time is pretty hazy.)

We had a good laugh about it a few months after surgery because on it's own it's a funny statement- does it really matter to me how good he is at removing my ability to have an erection? Then a little over a year after surgery things started coming back to life and I'm able to get a natural erection now. It's nothing like before, but I was able to give up injections and and switch to viagra and sometimes I don't even need the pills. It sure makes me wonder if there's any connection between his statement and my current state.

 

Posted 5/17/2012 3:25 PM (GMT 0)
Experience is an asset in any endeavor. So is youthful energy and enthusiasm and a desire for excellence through which to advance in one's field. I rejected my first surgeon, a man in his 50s with presumably thousands of surgeries under his belt, because he just didn't seem that engaged. I chose instead a surgeon in his late 30s, with "only" several hundred surgeries behind him, because he seemed more interested in my case. I also thought the younger man might be more comfortable with the recent rapid technological advances he had come up with. Does anyone know of any studies along these lines that would show superior results with greater experience for surgeons? I certainly wouldn't want to be the first surgery for my guy, but I figured after a few hundred he had undoubtedly demonstrated his skill and learned just about everything there was to it.
Posted 5/17/2012 11:39 PM (GMT 0)
Phenom, here is something that I posted on HW in 2008 that relates to your question.  The issue in this study was BCR and not ED, but it goes to the point of experience.

Tudpock (Jim)

FROM THE JOHNS HOPKINS HEALTH BULLETIN:

The importance of surgeon's experience as it relates to prostate cancer outcome is underscored by the results of a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (volume 99, page 1171).

Researchers analyzed the outcomes of 7,765 radical prostatectomies performed by 72 surgeons between January 1987 and December 2003 at four major academic medical centers. "Biochemical" recurrence was defined as a postsurgery PSA level greater than 0.4 ng/mL followed by a subsequent higher PSA level. The analysis took into account patient and tumor characteristics, such as pre-operative PSA level and Gleason grade. The men's PSA levels were measured every three to four months in the first year after surgery, twice in the second year, and annually during the following years.

The researchers found that surgical outcomes improved along with the number of radical prostatectomies a surgeon had performed, leveling off only after about 250 surgeries. The five-year probability of experiencing a recurrence of prostate cancer was 18% for surgeons who had performed only 10 operations compared with 11% for surgeons who had performed at least 250 surgeries.

Bottom line on prostate cancer surgery: The results suggest that you can improve your odds of a successful outcome from radical prostatectomy by taking time to find a surgeon with extensive experience.

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