By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

STARTING today, Bahamian urologist Dr Greggory Pinto will be performing a series of innovative surgeries

that will revolutionise the treatment of urological disorders in the Bahamas.

Today at Doctors Hospital, Dr Pinto will be conducting the country’s first laparoscopic minimally invasive prostatectomy— a curative prostate cancer surgery which accomplishes the “trifecta” of sparing nerves, preventing urinary incontinence, and removing cancer cells.

Today, Dr Pinto will also debut a curative, minimally invasive treatment for stress urinary incontinence in women in the form of synthetic vaginal sling. He described it as a “15-20 minute, relatively painless procedure” which solves the problem of urinary incontinence in women for a “lifetime”.

Furthermore, next month Dr Pinto will be performing a penile prosthesis surgery for the time in The Bahamas. This procedure can “profoundly, positively affect that life of many men…who the more conservative methods of curing erectile dysfunction have failed,” Dr Pinto said.

Dr Pinto discussed these ground-breaking procedures during an interview with The Tribune yesterday.

Regarding the synthetic sling, Dr Pinto said: “As many as 1 in 4 women have some amount of stress urinary incontinence - which means that they have a bladder leak anytime they exert any effort.

“So if they cough, if they lift anything, if they sneeze, they’re going to leak urine.

Dr Pinto said stress urinary incontinence affects women socially and professionally. He added risk factors include vaginal delivery and menopause.

“We can do a minimally invasive procedure that can be done on an extended lunch hour, we can place a synthetic sling.

“The main reason you’re getting this stress urinary incontinence is that there’s a hyper mobility of your urethra, which is the tunnel that allows you to pass urine. We can put a sling, which is like a hammock effect, which provides stability for your urethra. So there’s no longer any hyper mobility.”

Dr Pinto said this procedure can be done on general anaesthesia, a local anaesthetic, or conscious sedation. “So there’s no more leaking…It can give back control of your bladder, it can give back control of happiness.”

Starting next month, Dr Pinto will also be conducting surgeries to help men with erectile dysfunction.

“Well, in terms of penile prosthesis surgery, so for one reason or the other, if you have profound erectile dysfunction: either you have disruption of blood supply or nerve supply, in many cases it’s both, you’re giving up on having erectile function.

“This can give you an erection with an advanced device that’s self-contained, there’s no battery, it’s lifelong, basically they’re two cylinders that are inflated with the press of a button.

“We place a button that’s not noticeable, that’s palpated on the skin in the scrotal sac. You press the button and you have an erection instantly. You can procreate, you can ejaculate. And the erection only goes down once you press the button.”

“So this can profoundly, positively affect that life of many men…who the more conservative methods of curing erectile dysfunction have failed. So basically, you can always rise again. No matter what happens, this is a last case resort.”

Dr Pinto added he’s done “hundreds” of these surgeries in his career, previously in Germany, France, and South Africa.

Today, Dr Pinto will also debut a prostate cancer treatment surgery that will spare the nerves that provide erections. Known as laparoscopic minimally invasive prostatectomy, Dr Pinto said: “So instead of the open procedure where you’re directly looking at the organ…it’s using keyhole incisions, small tiny incisions with long precise instruments with a camera placed within one of these small incisions.

“And we’re looking up on our 4D high (definition) screen, which is magnified…. There’s no deep cut that requires muscle healing because everything is just a little small keyhole incision.

Of this this disease, which is the most common cancer in the Bahamas and also affects 1 in 6 men, Dr Pinto said: “Of all the cancers on earth, prostate cancer is one of the easiest to cure if we get it at an early stage.”