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Prostate surgery need not mean loss of potencyNew York, Feb 27: Men who lose their prostates after surgery may have a new hope. Now there's a new device to help them retain their potency. This new tool, currently undergoing evaluation in the US, helps urologist surgeons to preserve microscopic nerves around the prostate tissue controlling sexual function. James Brooks, a Stanford urologist, said that surgeons can then avoid damaging these nerves during the prostate's removal who is part of a multi-centre study of the device. The device, recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), works by delivering a low-level electrical stimulus to the nerves around the prostate and then measuring the erection feedback. Through this process, the device enables map these critical nerves, not visible to the eye, so that doctors can navigate around them during surgery. The new tool could make nerve-sparing surgeries more widely available to prostate cancer patients, the same expert said. Brooks is currently the only urologist surgeon in Northern California who is using the new tool. Called the CaverMap Surgical Aid, it is made by a biomedical company. Prostate surgery took a major leap forward in 1982 when Patrick Walsh of Johns Hopkins Medical Centre revealed that the nerves controlling erections do not pass through the prostate, but are situated in tissue around it. By 1984, Walsh had developed a new technique, called nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy, which helped him to preserve sexual function in a large number of prostate cancer patients. Brooks worked with Walsh for nine years before coming to Stanford a year ago. NOTE: Issues on this site regarding men's health and their concerns, are provided for information only, and are not meant to substitute for the advice of your own physician or other medical professional. Prostate-Report.org does not endorse any specific product, service or treatment. |
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