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Everyone on this board has dealt with the job of finding a surgeon. The recommendation, here, is that one only go under the knife with a high-volume surgeon. Great advice!! Like everything else that takes skill, "practice makes perfect." The two great, high-volume docs that keep coming up on the board are Kramer and Eid. However, there are plenty of other wonderful, implant-experienced surgeons around the country that could be much more convenient, attentive, and, perhaps, less costly. Could you get a great job done close to home?

For the great benefit of those who are looking, I think it might be helpful for the bionic brotherhood to share their experiences, good and bad, with local docs in their states. Some of the questions that a searcher would want answered should be:

How extensive is the docs experience with implants? No trainees please.
How hard was it to get to see him/her?
Did the doc listen to you and establish an easy rapport?
Was the office staff responsive and helpful?
What was the wait time until surgery?
How did the surgery go? Botches? Level of satisfaction with results?
Experience in recovery? Was the doc there for you and easily available for you during this time? You really want good follow-up practice.

I live in Texas and have locally had both: the good and the bad. I've discussed my experiences on other posts, but if there is an interest in this thread and it gets going, I'll share, again, on this one.

Okay, I'll play.

Dr.Milam, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN.

How extensive is the docs experience with implants? No trainees please. Extensive experience over many years.
How hard was it to get to see him/her? Easy
Did the doc listen to you and establish an easy rapport? Listened, but never felt a rapport.
Was the office staff responsive and helpful? Staff was okay; his nurse acts as a "gatekeeper" and blocks any attempts to get answers from Milam
What was the wait time until surgery? Three months.
How did the surgery go? Botches? Level of satisfaction with results? I was told to expect some loss of length. I wasn't expecting to lose 2", though. Very unhappy.
Experience in recovery? Was the doc there for you and easily available for you during this time? You really want good follow-up practice. His "gatekeeper" nurse prevented me from asking Milam questions about things that I thought might be serious.

psyched123 wrote:Everyone on this board has dealt with the job of finding a surgeon. The recommendation, here, is that one only go under the knife with a high-volume surgeon. Great advice!! Like everything else that takes skill "practice makes perfect." The two great, high-volume docs that keep coming up on the board are Kramer and Eid. However, there are plenty of other wonderful, implant-experienced surgeons around the country that could be much more convenient, attentive, and, perhaps, less costly. Could you get a great job done close to home?

For the great benefit of those who are looking, I think it might be helpful for the bionic brotherhood to share their experiences, good and bad, with local docs in their states. Some of the questions that a searcher would want answered should be:

A timely thread. psyched123, thanks.

Dr. Perito in Coral Gables FL is another on par with Dr. Eid and Dr. Kramer. He shared a stage with Dr Eid in one youtube video
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hsp ... dss_bd_com
wherein there were videos of both Dr. Eid's minimal skin contact surgery technique (going in through the scrotum) and Dr Perito's minimally invasive technique, going in above the penis and taking (usually) 10-20 minutes. A fascinating interview.

I live in Anchorage, Alaska. I am looking for a urologist to take me from early diagnosis (what I have so far is my own research and self-diagnosis, of which I am fairly confident, but I am still a layman) all the way to cure or resolution. My opinion is that I have had venous leakage for decades, only realized that is probably my problem this past week and figure there may be no other treatment than an implant - in my layman's mind. I will let my Doctor determine the truth, though.

Living where I do and with the limitations of the Veteran's Administration (I am a disabled Veteran), I started my search for a urologist with their list of 16 urologists. I went to each Doctor's name on healthgrades.com and looked at their specialties. Three had "implant surgery" in their profile.
Now, my polan is to call each clinic and make inquiry.

I did this because I had no list to go from (such as you imagine). However, I posted on Craigslist asking for local men who had testimonials and one of the respondents gave me the name of a surgeon who did his (successful) implant who did not have that surgery on his profile.

A hit-and-miss list is helpful, but not optimal.

Does anyone know if the A.M.A. or Urology Board (or other professional associations) could help in this area?

Lost Sheep

I am in Canada and travelling to the USA to one of the famous guys was not an option. Also my implant was 100% covered by my province's health care system and it would have been 100% self-pay otherwise.

I used my local (ie 100 miles from home) urulogist. He is on the AMS list of transplant surgeons for my province.

How extensive is the docs experience with implants? No trainees please.
He is not a high volume doc in the sense that Kramer et al are. I asked about his experience. He had about 100 implants under his belt. He teamed up with another local, high profile urologist to do my surgery.

How hard was it to get to see him/her?
Easy. We need a referral from a GP to see any specialist here. I think it took about 6 weeks to get an appointment.

Did the doc listen to you and establish an easy rapport?
Yes, he was very easy to talk to. Very open to answer any questions, offered very good explanations etc.

Was the office staff responsive and helpful?
There is only a receptionist/secretary and she was very helpful in setting appointments and relaying questions if I needed her too.

What was the wait time until surgery?
About 3 months after getting approval.

How did the surgery go? Botches? Level of satisfaction with results?
The surgery went well. Did develop an infection after about 7 months but the doc was VERY responsive and booked exams etc within a day or two. Strong oral antibiotics cleaned up the problem and it has not reoccured. Now 15 months post op. I believe the reservoir has migrated but it is okay for now. The IPP continues to operate just as advertised.

Experience in recovery? Was the doc there for you and easily available for you during this time? You really want good follow-up practice.
Yes, he made himself readily available for extra consultation after surgery although there were not many of those. I was totally happy with my experience with him. With one little exception.
The docs here are EXTREMELY EXTREMELY reluctant to prescribe any opiod pain medication, actually to the point of refusing. The best I could get from him was a Tramadol/Tylenol combo and I really needed medication on the day after surgery. I suffer from gout and probably as a result of the stress of surgery, I had an extremely bad, crippling flare up in both knees along with the surgical pain. The pain of trying to walk was far worse than the surgery.

He is not alone in this fear and I suspect that there are many patients with extreme and chronic pain who are not getting the relief they need.

I think it would be a good idea to ask which approach the doctor is going to use for the surgery,
infra-pubic or scrotal approach.

Watsup, is it possible to tell us the name of your Canadian doctors who performed your surgery?
Also which approach did they use?

Thanks,

hardernharder wrote:I think it would be a good idea to ask which approach the doctor is going to use for the surgery,
infra-pubic or scrotal approach.

Watsup, is it possible to tell us the name of your Canadian doctors who performed your surgery?
Also which approach did they use?

Thanks,

Dr. Darby Cassidy in Prince George BC is the urologist listed with AMS and he used the scrotal approach.

Watsup wrote: He is on the AMS list of transplant surgeons for my province.

I have been to AMS's and Coloplast's web sites and found no mechanism to get a list of surgeon using their devices. How did you get a list?

Thanks

Lost Sheep

Lost Sheep wrote:

Watsup wrote: He is on the AMS list of transplant surgeons for my province.

I have been to AMS's and Coloplast's web sites and found no mechanism to get a list of surgeon using their devices. How did you get a list?

Thanks

Lost Sheep

It has been over a year since I needed to go to their site. I just went there and it has changed. You're right, there doesn't seem to be a list any more.

Its still there you just have to go through a bunch of pages heres the link i http://www.bostonscientific.com/en-US/h ... ction.html
Click the view more information and on the left side of the page you will see a list the bottom one says find a physician

beachbum wrote:Its still there you just have to go through a bunch of pages heres the link i http://www.bostonscientific.com/en-US/h ... ction.html
Click the view more information and on the left side of the page you will see a list the bottom one says find a physician

You are right!! Thanks. The info sure is well hidden though, isn't it. And Dr. Cassidy is there along with another doc in Terrace BC. The location is north central BC. I'm sure there are other docs listed for other areas of the province.