Minimally invasive prostate surgery now in Central Texas

BYLINE: CELINE McARTHUR, KVUE HealthVue Reporter
DATE: September 3, 2004
PUBLICATION: KVUE

Prostate cancer kills 40,000 men in the United States every year.

Still, with early detection and treatment, it's one of the easiest cancers to beat.

As part of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month - one Austin surgeon offers a procedure that's more effective, and promises less pain and a faster recovery than traditional surgery.

Leibel Harelik, 55, spends hours a day on the computer learning everything he can about prostate cancer.

That's because Leibel was diagnosed with an advanced case two years ago.

"I was at stage four it had metastasized to two pelvic lymph nodes," he said.

Several of his doctors told him he was going to die.

"Every time a doctor tells you that you cry and you really break down because you can't see yourself in the ground and in a casket," he said.

So, Leibel decided to fight.

He found a new doctor at North Austin Medical Center who told him about a procedure called Laparoscopic Prostatectomy.

"We've picked up all the good things about radiation in terms of minimal invasiveness and combined it with all the good things about surgery," said Dr. Randy Fagin.

Fagin says in traditional surgery, the incisions are large enough for the surgeon's hands to enter the patient's body to remove the cancer.

It's painful and it's risky.

In the new procedure, tiny incisions are made, and all of the work is done using "portals."

A mini camera is inserted into the device, so doctors can get a better look at what they're doing.
"It's literally taking my eyeball, magnifying what I see 14 times and sticking it a centimeter away from where I'm working, it's absolutely incredible," Fagin said.

The new surgical technique is more efficient and cuts down on blood loss, so there's les pain and a quicker recovery. In fact, doctors say a patient can be off the operating table and back on his feet in just weeks, instead of months.

"After 24 hours I didn't feel like I had surgery," Leibel said.

But the best way to beat cancer is to stop it before it develops.

So take the advice of a cancer survivor.

Get tested -- while there's still time to do something about it.

"This way it takes away that doom and at least you can see the future," Leibel said.

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