Best doctors for HOLEP surgery

Hi Robt - I am probably going to have my Holep done by Dr. H next spring/summer at the Phoenix Mayo and am wondering how your recovery is coming along. Is your stream back to normal now? Best wishes.

Anybody have experience with Dr Joel Funk of Tucson, AZ?

Thanks - very helpful

Hi Graeme, I am also in Australia and would really like to knowsurgeons who perform HoLEP in Australia and your experience. Any leads would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, I've never entered a post until today. I want to start by thanking everyone that's shared their experiences. It went a long way in helping decide what my best course of action would be. I just turned 66 and have had BPH for 25 years. By last fall I was up anywhere from 4-6 times a night on .4 mg of Flomax. My local urologist here in Colorado doubled the dose to .8 mg. This reduced the nightly trek down to 3-4 visits but it dropped my blood pressure significantly. I was also taking Ambien so I could fall back to sleep. Not a good regimen. I'm pretty active and my doctors feel I'm in good health so we began to discuss other options and try to get in front of this before the condition declined and force me to make a reactionary decision. My urologist offered UroLift and Plasma button at our hospital, but the more I read, the more these options appealed less and less. The more research I did, including this thread, the more Holep seemed the way for me to go. By November, I was constantly fatigued by the Flomax dropping my blood pressure and the ambien not giving me quality sleep. I scheduled my Holep in November with Dr Lingeman. This was an excellent decision. I actually looked forward to going under the laser. Less than 2 months later I'm 7 days post-op. Day 1-4, a little blood in the urine, including frequency and urgency. The absorbent pads are the way to go, even just as a security blanket. Day 2 was the worst as we were traveling 13 hours (car, plane, car) back to CO. A lot of pressure on the prostate. A doughnut (like the kind used for hemorrhoids) would've come in handy. Day 5 the urgency and frequency subsided somewhat. I take walks every day since. I'm still getting up several times a night but feel like I'm getting a better quality sleep. Since day 5 the only time I wear a pad is at night. There are so many things the body is adjusting to, over-worked muscles, underworked muscles all adjusting from the surgery, I still don't want to take a chance while sleeping. Day 7, I worked a full day in my office. I have a long way to go in the healing process. There are a lot of friends waiting to see how this goes for me that are starting to admit the prostate issues they've had for years. My best recommendation is to not wait until the situation gets chronic. If you are a candidate for Holep, Dr. Lingeman is best in class. I can thank him for getting the year off on the right footing.

Hello - my husband is considering having the HoLEP procedure. We live in the Cleveland area and Dr. Ehud Gnessin does this procedure at University Hospital in Cleveland. We know that he trained with Dr. Lingeman, but we haven't seen any posts on this blog about Dr. Gnessin. Has anyone been treated by him or have any knowledge about him?

Hi Philip, my name is Paul. I'm now 19 days post-op from a HoLep procedure with Dr Lingeman. As his team recommended, I laid off physical exertion for 2 weeks, but after 5 days post-op began to walk 20 minutes or so almost every day. So, last Wednesday, was the 2 week mark and I started my workout regimen, slowly. No negative set-backs. This weekend my wife and I went for a hike and also cross country skied. Again no negative set-backs. Urination frequency at night is still mostly 2-3 times, but at least I'm not waiting forever for something to happen. I did have one night that I only got up once. I can't remember the last time that happened. Flow has improved incredibly in this time period. Minimal urgency. No incontinence. Still some lingering pain at the tip of the penis because of the catheter, but no big deal. Because of this, holding off sex activity for another week or so. Every once in a while I'm reminded that there's a whole lot of healing going on and initially feels like a set-back. But it isn't. It's just healing. It's then that I start paying attention to things that I'm in control of ...like do I really need a 4th cup of coffee? Or maybe you really can over hydrate, especially after 7 pm? All in all, every day is a step in the right direction

How have things been going for you? Has your PSA number stayed down? Did they do anything more wit the "small amount of cancer" or do they think HOLep took care of it?

A year ago I was diagnosed with stage 3 prostate cancer and because I've been asymptomatic declined the recommended biopsy, ADT and radiation (my PSA at that time was 460 - now it's 846).  I've been focusing on strengthening my immune system thru diet, supplements and various alternative treatments in my goal of delaying the progression of the disease. I'm 73, active and otherwise in good health.  However, I recently experienced urinary retention and repeated catheterization and am considering alternatives to relieve those symptoms if medications prove ineffective (will be meeting with the urologist this week).  From all I read it appears that HoLEP would be superior to TURP or other potential Rx and have read these posts with great interest. 

After multiple inquires to the many resources suggesting in these posts it appears that I cannot be accepted as a candidate for HoLEP in the USA unless I've first had biopsy, ADT, etc. - in other words followed the progression as described in the Standard of Care......which I want to avoid as long as possible.  So I've made some inquires to the suggested resources outside the USA to see if the same conditions apply - have just received one encouraging response from Dr. Alfonso Santos in Spain and am wondering if anyone has had the procedure from him or can offer any references on the quality of care provided.  Any info would be greatly appreciated. 

Also, if anyone is aware of an MD in the USA who might do the procedure for me, or other reliable sources in other countries please let me know.  Thanks to all in this forum for the much appreciated comments and information.....

thanks for the quick reply and suggestion - will check out the robotic prostatectomy option with Dr. Patel - but a urologist I saw at the University of Iowa said my cancer had progressed too far for any surgical options. My diagnosis was based on DRE and 3 MRI's. thanks again for your reply....