Urology Surgery

Advanced, high tech treatment.

Cape Cod Healthcare’s experienced urologists offer a full range of procedures for adult and pediatric urology. J. Keith Bleiler, M.D., a Falmouth Hospital staff surgeon and board-certified urologist, places an emphasis on kidney, bladder and prostate cancer control for all age groups using cutting edge technologies.

“Here you’ll find nearly every surgical procedure that is offered in Boston, with the same or better care,” Dr. Bleiler says. “We offer all major surgeries and treatments for all types of urologic cancers, including the nerve-sparing prostatectomy.”

Many urologic surgeries are moving toward less invasive or non-invasive approaches. For example, residents on the Cape suffering with kidney stone complications have a new treatment option that may relieve the pain. In an outpatient procedure called extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy, doctors use shock waves to pulverize the kidney stone, breaking it into tiny sand-like particles that can pass with urine.

"Lithotripsy is a safe procedure that causes very little risk to other organs," said Robert Hartnett, M.D., a Cape Cod Hospital staff surgeon and board-certified urologist. "It is highly effective when dealing with kidney stones. Patients can usually go home within a few hours of the procedure."

The laparoscopic nephrectomy - a minimally invasive surgical procedure to remove a kidney - is another new technique used by Cape urologists for controlling kidney cancer. It replaces the traditional open surgery’s seven-inch incision, long hospital stay and six-week recovery.

“We do as much as we can on a minimally invasive, outpatient surgery basis,” added Dr. Hartnett, “including radioactive seed therapy implantation as a treatment option for prostate cancer; kidney stone management and procedures for urinary incontinence.”

If prostate surgery (prostectomy) is the necessary treatment path, "there is no better place than the Cape hospitals to have it, because of our experience," said William G. Johston, M.D., a Cape Cod Hospital staff surgeon and board-certified urologist.