Staying local vs traveling-Revision Surgery

[Friday121224]

Are you going back with a Titan or are you going with something else?

Probably Titan as it’s covered by the warranty.

[wilsonmill]

It will be interesting to know what failed on your Titan, mine was tubing, after 5yrs to the month, the tubing going to the left cylinder developed a hole and lost all the saline.

[Friday121224]

Appreciate all the feedback guys. I have a consult with the local Doc this afternoon, I am going to keep an open mind and just see what he says. I’ll post what I find out.

[ElbowRoom]

I think Dr. Hakky would be (and is in October) my choice. I don't know Dr. Ortiz, but Hakky seems to consistently come up as one of the top four docs in the USA (Eid, Hakky, Clavell, Perito in no particular order). It doesn't mean you can't get a great result with anybody else, even low volume docs. It's just an odds game.

Why not fly instead of drive? It's less than a two hour hop. I guess the advantage of driving is more control over body position and you can make stops as needed, even if it takes longer.

Good luck, sounds like both choices are great ones.

[Courage]

I'm facing similar dilemma. Given my last experience was bad--with a Center of Excellence, fellowship trained guy--I'm strongly considering traveling to one of the super high volume guys who do a version of no-touch. I saw Clavell, have a consult scheduled with Hakky, and will see a more local guy Clavell and my last uro mentioned. I think I'd rather shoot my shot on minimizing infection and risk seeing local uro for complications.

[krh9999]

Does anyone have any experience with Dr Ortiz of UVA?

My Titan failed on me after 4.5 years. It was life changing when it worked but not it doesn’t. I have been saving money and I am switching insurances soon because AETNA does not cover IPP surgery even if it a revision.

I have AETNA PPO and dealing with them now for a revision. What kind of AETNA plan do you have?

[Friday121224]

Does anyone have any experience with Dr Ortiz of UVA?

My Titan failed on me after 4.5 years. It was life changing when it worked but not it doesn’t. I have been saving money and I am switching insurances soon because AETNA does not cover IPP surgery even if it a revision.

I have AETNA PPO and dealing with them now for a revision. What kind of AETNA plan do you have?

I just switched to Anthem Blue cross Blue Shield. I was not clear on what Aetna Plan I had before I switched.

[Friday121224]

So the more local Urologist, Dr. Ortiz, at UVA does about 40-50 IPP surgeries per year. He is listed as a Boston scientific center of excellence Dr as well. I met and talked with him and he seemed very knowledgeable and informed on everything IPP related, even revisions. He truly gave me a lot of confidence about him doing my surgery after talking to him.

My question to you all is though, would you consider 40-50 surgeries a year high volume Dr? Would you feel comfortable going to a Dr. with this many surgeries per year?

[tomas1]

I don't think 40 to 50 implants per year is high volume.
I also think the very high-volume guys may not actually give you better care.

I had no idea how many my surgeon did and still don't know. I do know, I was scheduled about 3 months in the future when I had it, and he did several the day he did mine.

If he said the right things and you got good vibes from him, I think I'd use him.
It's so hard to say one way or the other though.