HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Best Surgeons - Patel, Menon or .....

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 12/12/2012 3:28 AM (GMT 0)
53 Year Old - New to the site

I think I have decided on the Robotic Procedure ... have been investigating Menon and Patel since it seems experience matters

I am Canadian so will have to pay in the USA but would like some input on the best surgeon with the best results
Posted 12/12/2012 3:59 AM (GMT 0)
Those are good names. Others will add their favorites, although we can only speak from experience. The biggest "name" is Dr. Samadi, and although some of us don't like his advertising, he is well respected for his surgical work.
Posted 12/12/2012 4:45 AM (GMT 0)
Tom,

Welcome to HW and sorry you have to be here in our little corner of the world.

When my wife asked my uro who he would have do his surgery if he had PC, he said Dr. Vipul Patel. He is "The Guru" of DaVinci surgery. I called 2 hours later and got an appointment with him. In Less than 4 weeks I had my surgery.

Dr. Patel has done more Robotic surgeries than anyone In The World!, somewhere between 5,500 and 6,000. You could be #6,000.

The day I met with him, I counted something like 30 patients in his office to see him. When it was my turn, he talked to me like he knew my case for months. I was impressed immediately and knew he was the man for me.

I met with his scheduler and asked him, " Is Dr. Patel a morning person? If so, I would like an early morning surgery." The scheduler had a huge smile on his face and said, " Let me tell you something about him, I flew back from China one night with Dr. Patel, we went to the gym early the next morning and worked out, then he performed 8 surgeries in a row and everyone was just as good as the other! The man has unbelieveable stamina!"

When I had my DaVinci surgery July 17, 2012, I was 3rd of 7 men that day. We all enjoyed meeting each other the days after our surgeries and had a great visit in the waiting room for our 6 week follow up.

I know some here may feel that is too many surgeries for one man to do, but Dr. Patel is in league by himself. He has performed the first robotic prostatectomy in China, Russia, Chile, Columbia and India. His office is great and they deal with many patients who come to Orlando, FL from all over the world to have their robotic prostatectomies.

His web site www.globalroboticsinstitute.com can give you all the facts and figures of his after surgery continence and ED results. I am still having continence issues but very little ED problems. Bob, who had his surgery right after mine, was down to 1 pad in about 4 weeks.

I traveled from So. Florida, 3 hours away, and stayed in a hotel across the street from the hospital in Celebration, FL the day before and 6 days after the surgery until the cathater was removed. We didn't go to Walt Disney World that trip but it is only 6 miles away from the hospital if you are considering bringing your family with you. The hotel has a shuttle to Disney. If you are planning to have your surgery this winter, what better place to be but Florida if you are from Canada.

And the hospital, Florida Hospital is unreal! You would not believe it is hospital inside or out. In fact, it is on Disney property, and nobody does it like Disney.

Feel free to email me if you have any other questions. Click on bigmac and you will see my email address.

Good luck in the coming months

Bill
Posted 12/12/2012 4:46 AM (GMT 0)
all excellent

Mel

Posted 12/12/2012 4:51 AM (GMT 0)
Mark Kawachi at City of Hope in Pasadena, Ca. and his partner have each done 3,500 to 4k Davincis each-- they are both very good.......Pioneers....
Posted 12/12/2012 12:53 PM (GMT 0)
Regarding Dr Samadi, i was told by someone who had the surgery and considered Dr Samadi, that he does not do the entire surgery himself anymore, he often directs others, and not just in sewing up at the end. Not sure how correct this is but i believe that this person was told this by Dr Samadi himself. FWIW
Posted 12/12/2012 1:45 PM (GMT 0)
Talking to the surgeon about the process can easily include the question of who does the steps in the surgery, and it is a very valid question, even moreso with surgerons who do what seems like a large number of surgeries each day.

As well, in university or training hospitals, it would be very likely, if not guaranteed, that students are involved in much of the process for all surgeries.

I had to sign an acknowledgement of having been told that at the hospital.

Posted 12/12/2012 2:43 PM (GMT 0)
Menon at Henry Ford Hospital claims to be the first to have the robot and has done over 6,000 RRP's using it - go to the HFH website and check-out the Vattikuti Urology Institute :

http://www.henryford.com/vui

I understand they will put your family up in a hotel close to the hospital, at no charge.  I'm originally from the Detroit area.  Don't let the word "Detroit" scare you from considering Menon.  That area isn't bad, at all - on Grand Blvd with the Fisher Theatre  just down the street.  And your family can always cross the river to Windsor, if they are feeling lonely for Canada.

BTW, what are your numbers ( Gleason & PSA ) ??    If you qualify for CyberKnife radiation treatments , Dr. Katz in Flushing, NY ( outside NYC) will do CK for a total of $18K plus the cost of a MRI.  The treatments consist of 5 high dose treatments, one a day for five days.  The entire process takes about two weeks.  A chance to see a little of NYC.

Good luck on your journey.

Posted 12/12/2012 2:55 PM (GMT 0)
JAVGuzzi

below is my data (for some reason did not show on my signature)

Age 53
Gleason 7(3,4) and Gleason 6(3,3)
6 Positive Cores of 15
30% max
Prostate Volume 24
PSA 3.0
Posted 12/12/2012 4:10 PM (GMT 0)
Tom,

I can only speak from my own personal experiences about Dr. Menon. But many times here on HW there are conversations about not only the technical ability of the doctor, but their desire to treat the whole patient and not just the disease.

I flew from Orlando to Detroit to interview Dr. Menon about doing my surgery. On that day I met with just about everyone on his staff. There are many and each has their area of expertise in the process. To name some of the major aspects; Nutrition (both before and after surgery) ED rehab, Continence, Exercise, Surgery, Recovery, etc.

While speaking with Dr. Menon, I mentioned that my wife also had cancer and had just come out of ICU after 6+ weeks in a drug induced coma. I also told him that I would not be ready for surgery for a few weeks until I was sure that my wife would be okay with someone staying with her while I was gone for the week that I would be in Detroit. My entire conversation with him took about 45 minutes.

The day of my surgery, about 4 weeks later, I ran into Dr. Menon in his offices. I introduced myself again and told him we had an appt in surgery in a few hours. His response told me I had selected the right man. "Certainly I remember you Mr. Wolfe, but more importantly, how is your wife doing?" He spent about 10 minutes in the hallway talking with me and asking questions about my wife's health. Later that day and after recovery, I called my wife to make sure that someone had called to tell her how things went. She told me they sure had. She went on to tell me that Dr. Menon had personally called and spent about 30 minutes talking with her not only about me but her condition as well.

Dr. Menon in my belief takes more than just the surgery into account. He has developed procedures that are being used by many to address more fully "Nerve Sparing". I am just over three years out from surgery and am fully functional without meds or other aids.

He does not use the foley catheter that so many here have such difficulty with. He and his researchers have implemented the process of using the Supra-Pubic Catheter. This results in just a small tube coming out of the abdomen and is only in for 5-6 days. No tubes from the penis, no irritation, no discomfort and no issues. I have been fully continent since the day the cath was removed.

My recovery was quick, I was only in Detroit for 7 days. And upon my return home I was able to completely go back into my role as caregiver.

I have been receiving follow up phone calls and email questionaires every 4-6 months since my surgery. He truly tracks all of his patients from the beginning.

While my PSA has still been rising since my surgery and I have also had SRT, I believe that Dr. Menon and his staff did everything that could have been done to rid me of this cancer. It just seems to me that some cells had escaped before my surgery.

But I have had "Quality Of Life" for these last three years, in all aspects.

Just thought that you might find some information about the person and his character of value.

Far too often we talk here at HW about the "mechanics" that are competent, but that they disappear, are clueless, or uninterested, when the other aspects of life beyond surgery come into play.

Hope this helps.

Sonny
Posted 12/12/2012 5:13 PM (GMT 0)
Good words on Dr. Menon, I too got a second opinion from him and find him to be apparently very open and honest as to my assessment on my prognosis. I had super high risk numbers and stats, after the DRE and reviewing my pathology, history and little discussion.....stated flat out I will not do surgery on you!!!! Seems rare for a surgeon to deny doing a proceedure or putting the patients concerns perhaps way out in front of his own benefits. I kind of figured back then he is likely correct in his opinion, although a prior local surgeon here was guaranteeing me a cure and only 1% chance of incontinence (LOL), I got 6 more opinions from radiologists, oncologists, fired a couple of them immediately, but 7 out of 8 were saying no way for a cure in my scenario. They were correct too, year 11 coming up soon and the dragon never did show cure numbers or not for long anyway. So, I would say he appears super honest about it all, he likely could have talked me into doing it and did not, appreciated that.

That day in 2002 I also met the first LRRP patient in the USA, he was returning for follow up stuff, a young guy like 43 yrs. old approx., golfer too, claims he was playing gold within days after LRRP. His surgery was video taped and took extra long because they wanted a full production on it all, not sure if we can access that video anywhere or not.

Post Edited (zufus) : 12/12/2012 10:16:52 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/12/2012 7:58 PM (GMT 0)
Well, I guess I should chime in too about Dr. Menon.

He was my surgeon and I concur with all the previous remarks. He spent time with me.

Like Sonny, my PC had escaped so in that sense the surgery failed, but I certainly would not fault Dr. Menon.

In fact, I recovered quickly and uneventfullly. The SP catheter was great, compared to the Foley. I quickly (2 weeks) regained total continence. ED is somewhat of an issue with me, but only somewhat.

You can't go wrong with Dr. Menon.

Oh, and his staff was great. When I visited him to get his opinion I did meet with his staff and as Sonny said, lots of individual expertise there in all aspects of our disease.

Also, when I had my surgery at Ford Hospital, they have accomodations on the grounds. So my wife and I stayed in an apartment (spacious) for a week until they removed the catheter and I was good to go. We really appreciated that. At the time, they also had a grant that paid almost all of those expenses.

Mel

Posted 12/12/2012 10:41 PM (GMT 0)
Tom0613:

I recommend that you get a consult at a CyberKnife Center. You can't get too much info. before making a decision, IMHO.

If you are close to Windsor, I would see Dr. Henning at St. Joe's in Ann Arbor.
Good luck on your journey.
Posted 12/12/2012 11:42 PM (GMT 0)
Javguzzi,
I think your comment about the eight surgeries was meant to be about Patel not Samadi. I believe they have 3 DaVinci's and his Team preps the patient ahead of the actual surgery. Patel only takes about 1 1/2 hours per surgery himself and he does his own surgeries. I believe that is how he does it. Since I was out at the time, I didn't see how they actually did it.
Bill
Posted 12/13/2012 12:11 AM (GMT 0)
Ditto Big Mac's reply.  My husband had his surgery 8/09/10 and  was very happy with his results.  And, as Big Mac said, the hospital was incredible.

Renee

Posted 12/14/2012 2:18 AM (GMT 0)
BigMac:

Thanks for pointing out my error. I'm deleting that post, since I sdid not mean Samadi.
But I still think 7 or 8 surgeries in one day is too many for one surgeon to be doing, IMHO. 1.5 hrs/ case x 8 cases = 12 Hrs PLUS, O.R. clean-up time.   And 1.5 hours seems kinda short, from what I have read.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply