I have previously written about sexual function and how it changes after prostate cancer surgery.
As men are being diagnosed with prostate cancer at a younger age and at an earlier stage, the preservation of erectile function and the ability to maintain satisfactory erections has become more important. My partners and I offer a variety of options to assist in the recovery of erections including having a vacuum device specialist come in to the office once a month, teaching patients how to give penile injections and intra-urethral suppositories, and prescribing viagra, levitra, and cialis on a maintenance, preventative basis.

One of the most frustrating things is insurance companies not paying for maintenance medicines even though most urologists feel these medicines help erections return sooner and possibly more fully. There was an excellent review of the literature by Dr. McCullough of NYU that I read this weekend. He is one of the world's authorities on erectile dysfunction.

This is a great source of information for urologists who can receive 1.5 CME credits.

I will start giving this link out to patients with a letter to see if it helps get them at least partial payment from insurance companies.

I hope patients report any positive experiences with insurance companies paying for their PDE5 inhibitors after surgery.

I have been personally prescribing 1/2 of a pill of the maximum strength to be taken on Mon, Wed, and Friday evenings.

Posted by Domenico Savatta, M.D. | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | | |

I recently had an encounter with United Healthcare that initially resulted in a denial of a request to treat one of their patients with UPJ stenosis (partial obstruction of the drainage leading from the kidney to the bladder) with a robotic repair of the condition. The denial was initially based on the perception that such surgery was "experimental" and not a generally accepted form of treatment. After nearly two months of back and forth, I have approval to do the procedure and I believe I have convinced United Health to accept the procedure generally for all its subscribers. I have posted below several references to articles that I forwarded to the medical director in the course of our discussions. Most pyeloplasties are done in children and you can see that the articles reflect that, although my patient was an adult. Perhaps they will be of help to someone else in a similar situation.

Continue reading "Are da Vinci Pyeloplasties "Experimental"" »

Posted by Dale Russell M.D. | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | | |