How to Choose A Surgeon?

I have been lurking in this forum since my last PSA of 5.16 and fPSA of 0.85%. My Urologist said a TRUS Bx was warranted since this indicated a 56% chance of PCa. Now I am waiting for the Bx results and studying up on things so I can be prepared for any news, either positive or negative results. BTW this forum is amazing. Thanks for all the open and frank discussion without a lot of extra drama.

Several posts emphasized the importance of finding an experienced surgeon with a good track record. I have read most of Dr. Patrick Walsh's "Guide To Living Well With Prostate Cancer". The learning curve for these surgeries seems to level out after about 250 procedures. My urologist is a nice young man about 5 years into his private practice. I will ask for his stats but don't think he has the time under his belt to gain the proficiency I will want, if the Bx news warrants a surgical option.

My question here is; How does one find a surgeon's stats without walking into his office making an appointment and asking him personally? I live just outside of Ft Worth Texas and know that in the Dallas- Ft Worth Metro area there must be several good surgeons. I just don't know how to start looking for the right one. Any suggestions will help.

Thanks

SOMEone has to be the patients of "a nice young man 5 years into his practice" and perhaps he's excellent. But experience REALLY counts with many of the PCa treatment options. If you have PCa, do you have access to a major cancer center where they have teams that really focus on PCa?
Mikey

Thanks David. I appreciate your advice. Absolutely, I will listen to advice from my Drs. Right now, I am just in research mode. Its the engineer in me.

BTW - You are a marvel! Your time and energy are precious and you spend it freely on strangers.

Thank You.

Here's a link to my Uro/Surgeon. He has offices in Arlington and Las Colinas.

www.drkeithwaguespack.com/

Pop, I think you're jumping in too early. First step is to confirm if you have cancer. Then to verify what type of cancer you have and what grade. Then to sort out treatment options and pick the one best for you. Then you get a second reading of slides if they indeed came back positive on first reading.

If you chose surgery, I'd suggest you pick someone who is both experienced and good. As njs points out, experience alone doesn't cut it.

Then you need to come to terms with how far you are willing to travel for this "one shot" treatment. Everyone wants to stay local, but sometimes travel maximizes results and minimizes potential SEs.

Some of the top surgeons publish their statistics online, many don't.

But seriously, in your shoes I'd slow down and take it one step at a time so as to not condition the natural process.

Pops,

Thank you.

David in SC

Just tell him you'd like to talk with one of his successful patients. You may glean some useful information that way. Best wishes, Dan P

Hey Pop... as a fellow engineer, I understand the need to research regardless of what you may do with the information. Hopefully, you will not need any of it, but if you do and end up going down the surgery route...

Ask your uro who he would have do his surgery. Most of the surgeons/oncologist I have talked with had no problem answering this question and were very candid with why they would choose a particular surgeon. A couple of them tried to answer around the question, but I would not let them off the hook.

When talking to a surgeon, just outright ask them how many surgeries and what there success rate is for incontinence, ED, negative margins, etc. and ask what success means. Everyone one I have talked with has been very straight up with their answers and I never felt awkward (thanks to them) about the questions. In fact, they made me feel good that I was asking those types of questions. I also asked them, what types of patients would they not take or recommend surgery on. Somewhere on this site there is an excellent list of questions for surgeons.

Though I have to believe you can find and excellent surgeon in the DFW area, if you can afford a plane trip and few nights stay in a hotel, then think about looking elsewhere in the US. You can fly in, get the surgery and fly out. All the post op stuff can be done by your current uro or GP.

Good luck on the biopsy... hopefully your stay here will be short!

List of surgeons

   I read this post yesterday and almost replied but I didn't think I should.

Last night, all I could do was think of what I have been through.  I ask myself everyday  What If?

   Take your  time in selecting a surgeon. Ask as many questions as you can and talk to as many people as you can.  Don't hurry into it until you are sure of your surgeon.

   I went into my surgery about 1 month after I found out I had cancer.  I took my URO's advice and went with someone that had done 400 ops.    

   I don't think he did enough.  A friend of mine , which I found out later had someone else perform his surgery and everything is fine with him. 

   I could have done that extra mile and drove to his doctor and had him do mine.

   So much for the nerve-sparing surgery I had.  He was only able to save the right side.  I am closing in on 2 years now , which is an unofficial mark with still 100% ED.

    I know I did the right thing and would not change that.

    But I ask myself  everyday, What if I chose another Surgeon.

     Take your time, be informed and I wish you the best.

Hi

I am just one week past my RALP. You ask an important question. You must also understand that treatment of Pca is big business. Of course you will be given the names of of all the prominent surgeons. I am sure that they are very good and they also pay people lots of money to promote them. ( some of them).
I visited this forum and checked out al of them but decided to stay with my local guy.
Here are the reasons. He's also young ( around 38) but he also takes the time to talk to you. He listens and then explains everything. He has also been doing 4 to 5 RALP procedures per month so he has at least 250 under his belt. He has good training and was first trained in open prostatectomy which I thought was important. He grew up in the first video game generation. This is more important than you think. My children were always better than me at video games because they were second nature to them. My personal opinion is that some one with video game skills will pick up this procedure faster.
I also liked the fact that he was associated with a high volume medical center here in NJ.
Finally I got an endorsement for my surgeon from his partner. His partner who is also his father in law, had him do his RALP last summer.
This is what worked for me and for me it was the right decision. Good luck to you no matter what you decide.

Believe the biopsy will tell the tale as far as treatment goes. Good luck.

Any friends or relatives in the medical field? I was lucky enough to have both. A couple of them even had been the nurse or gas passer during his procedures. All six of them asked separately recommended my surgeon. I asked why and all of them said that it he had the best negative margins stats in the region and close to 1000 procedures under his belt. They also said he was a perfectionist and took grief because he often took longer. I liked that. If you are going to mess with me south of the belt, then perfectionist is a good thing. All that was good enough for me.

Tom