While they can save lives, some therapies to kill prostate cancer might leave men with embarrassing problems. Now, a new treatment is improving survivors' lives in and out of the bedroom.
Steady hands, sharp vision and swift feet. Doctor Sanjay Razdan has performed more than two-thousand prostate surgeries using a robot. Now he's the first in the world to use amniotic membrane, the tissue that protects fetuses, to improve incontinence and erectile dysfunction after a prostatectomy.
"Ninety percent of our patients are able to maintain the same number of erections as they had before prior to the surgery, but no matter how hard you try 10 percent will not," Dr. Sanjay Razdan, director of the international robotic prostatectomy institute and the Urology Center of Excellence at Jackson South Hospital said.
Bill Sergio was the first to try the new treatment. "I didn't know he was going do it. He surprised me," bill Sergio said.
After removing the cancerous prostate, a layer of dehydrated amniotic stem cells is placed over the nerve bundle.
"It's not going hurt if it doesn't work, it doesn't work," Dr. Razdan said.
Before, patients like Joseph Mcnichol would have to wait up to 18 months to get back to normal. With this, Dr. Razdin said, continence issues can improve in weeks. "Maybe not 100 percent of what it was before but its very close," Joseph Mcnichol said.
Within days of the procedure, both men noticed their sexual function was returning to normal too. "It was pleasant, it was pleasant," Bill said. "It's not a complete loss I can tell you that much, that's for sure!" Joseph said.
So far, only a small number of men have had the amniotic membrane surgery. A randomized study is currently being done to evaluate how the procedure works in a larger number of patients.
Steady hands, sharp vision and swift feet. Doctor Sanjay Razdan has performed more than two-thousand prostate surgeries using a robot. Now he's the first in the world to use amniotic membrane, the tissue that protects fetuses, to improve incontinence and erectile dysfunction after a prostatectomy.
"Ninety percent of our patients are able to maintain the same number of erections as they had before prior to the surgery, but no matter how hard you try 10 percent will not," Dr. Sanjay Razdan, director of the international robotic prostatectomy institute and the Urology Center of Excellence at Jackson South Hospital said.
Bill Sergio was the first to try the new treatment. "I didn't know he was going do it. He surprised me," bill Sergio said.
After removing the cancerous prostate, a layer of dehydrated amniotic stem cells is placed over the nerve bundle.
"It's not going hurt if it doesn't work, it doesn't work," Dr. Razdan said.
Before, patients like Joseph Mcnichol would have to wait up to 18 months to get back to normal. With this, Dr. Razdin said, continence issues can improve in weeks. "Maybe not 100 percent of what it was before but its very close," Joseph Mcnichol said.
Within days of the procedure, both men noticed their sexual function was returning to normal too. "It was pleasant, it was pleasant," Bill said. "It's not a complete loss I can tell you that much, that's for sure!" Joseph said.
So far, only a small number of men have had the amniotic membrane surgery. A randomized study is currently being done to evaluate how the procedure works in a larger number of patients.
