Urology, Bladder & Prostate Care at Stamford Health

For men with concerns about prostate cancer, we offer the latest technologic advances to better identify, diagnose, and treat men with prostate cancer.

About 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime. If you’re approaching 50 years of age, we recommend you discuss prostate cancer screening with your physician. However, if you’re high risk, you may want to begin testing as early as 40, with a follow-up test five years later. You may be at high risk if:

• You’re African American
• You have a strong family history of prostate cancer

• Issues urinating, including feeling the need to urinate more often
• Blood in urine or semen
• Pain in hips, back, chest, or other areas of the body
• Weakness in the legs or feet
• Loss of bladder or bowel control

Source: ACS

Prostate-specific antigen refers to a substance produced by cells from your prostate gland and released into your bloodstream. Advanced testing assesses your personal risk of having a high-grade prostate cancer, such as Gleason 7 (a term used to describe the prostate cancer scoring system) or above, based on blood levels of PSA and other markers for prostate cancer. If we detect a concerning result, we offer advanced blood testing to more precisely define whether you may need further evaluation. We routinely incorporate the use of multi-parametric MRI of the prostate in the evaluation which can help determine if a biopsy is indicated.

Your doctor will draw a small amount of blood from your arm, and then will check the blood to see if your PSA level is normal. Your doctor may also use this test to check for any increase in a PSA level compared to your previous PSA test. At this point, cancer won’t be diagnosed, but we’ll be able to tell you if further testing is needed. Your primary care doctor can work with you to administer these tests.

If you’re approaching 50 years of age, we recommend you discuss prostate cancer screening with your physician. However, if you’re high risk, you may want to begin testing as early as 40, with a follow-up test five years later. You may be at high risk if:

• You’re African American
• You have a strong family history of prostate cancer

For men who are considering a prostate biopsy, we are able to more accurately target areas of concern within the prostate.

Using the UroNav MRI Fusion platform, we can precisely sample the prostate and detect prostate cancer:

For men with prostate cancer who are considering surgery, we routinely perform robotic prostatectomies, or removal of the prostate, with the daVinci Xi Robotic surgery platform. This approach offers a minimally invasive option for patients who require complex surgery leading to more precise surgery, less time in the hospital, and a faster recovery.

We are also skilled at robotic surgery for other urologic cancers such as tumors of the kidney and bladder. Some patients with kidney tumors are candidates for a robotic partial nephrectomy (removing the tumor, while leaving the rest of the kidney intact). Robotic surgery often leads to shorter recovery time and an earlier return to normal activity. Preserving normal kidney tissue is an optimal approach for certain patients with kidney tumors.

We offer robotic approaches for non-cancerous urologic conditions as well. Some patients with BPH and a markedly enlarged prostate may benefit from a simple, robotic prostatectomy. For patients with ureteral obstruction due to congenital (at-birth) abnormalities, robotic ureteral surgery is available at Stamford Hospital with the latest robotic technology available.

Men with voiding issues from prostate enlargement (BPH) may benefit from surgical treatment of their condition. We offer minimally invasive laser surgeries which generally are performed on an outpatient basis.

Kidney stones can affect women or men at any time and often cause significant pain and can interfere with a person’s ability to perform their daily routines. For those patients who require surgical management, we offer the various surgical treatment options for all sizes of stones.

Men with erectile dysfunction have a variety of non-surgical treatment options available. However, if these fail, surgical implants are available as an option to offer a return of function.

For men who are sure they don't want a future pregnancy, a vasectomy is a medical sterilization procedure. A vasectomy involves cutting or blocking the vas deferens, in order to prevent sperm from traveling. A vasectomy reversal reconnects the male reproductive tract after a vasectomy, should he wish to do so.