World-Class Urology
New providers and technology make Renown Health a top destination for care.
Eric Kim, MD
Christopher Evans, MD
THE FIELD OF UROLOGIC SURGERY is rapidly growing at Renown Health.
“ Our department now has decades of expertise, with several surgeons who have joined us after significant experience in academic institutions,” says Eric Kim, MD, division chief of Urology at Renown Health.“ We now have urology specialists in oncology, minimally invasive surgery, male reconstructive urology, pediatric urologic care and urogynecology, offering nearly the full spectrum of urologic care at a subspecialty level.”
Renown Health is also committed to advanced technology, with fellowship-trained surgeons performing robotic prostatectomy for prostate cancer and robotic partial nephrectomy for kidney cancer. In 2025, the hospital will install a single-port robot, so patients will only need one incision instead of five, allowing some patients to potentially go home the same day.
“ We are also hoping to start clinical trials for prostate cancer treatment with histotripsy, which Renown Health has just begun using to treat liver cancer,” says Christopher Evans, MD, vice chair of the Department of Surgery at Renown Health.“ This groundbreaking noninvasive treatment will also hopefully soon be FDA-approved to treat kidney and pancreas tumors.”
NUANCED DIAGNOSIS
Unnecessary, invasive tests and misdiagnoses have been longstanding problems associated with prostate cancer screenings. At Renown Urology Care, urologists and surgeons take a more nuanced approach when planning care for men with high prostate-specific antigen( PSA) levels, as a higher PSA level does not always indicate the presence of prostate cancer.
“ We try to be careful and thoughtful about who needs to get imaging and who needs to get a biopsy,” says Eric Kim, MD, division chief of Urology at Renown Health.“ Unfortunately, the standard of care in many places is to automatically biopsy patients. We risk-stratify patients before subjecting them to an invasive, uncomfortable procedure. Testing for a 45-year-old with an elevated PSA should be very different from how you work up a 70-year-old with elevated PSA.”
Multimodal Cancer Care After a cancer diagnosis, the urology teams work with providers at the William N. Pennington Cancer Institute to provide a multimodal approach that coordinates care between urologic surgery, radiation oncology and medical oncology.
“ Our tumor board adds pathologists and radiologists to this team to ensure a comprehensive review of cases,” Dr. Evans says.“ This coordinated approach makes it easier for patients to receive care all in one place and for us to adapt our care plan to adjust to the patient’ s response.”
Call Renown Urology Care at 775-982-5770 for referrals or appointments.
Renown Health offers robotic surgery for several urological conditions, including bladder cancer, kidney cancer and prostate cancer.
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