A Woman's Guide to Surgical Options in the New Millennium: A Gentler Approach

About the Book

Teamwork is needed to accomplish the highly technical operative procedures that are available today to keep you running smoothly. It takes input from doctors, nurses and other operating room staff along with medical technology companies to be able to provide the leading surgical procedures to you. Today’s advances come from working together to fulfill the surgical team’s needs so that you benefit by having MINIMALLY INVASIVE procedures available to you that reward you with a shorter hospital stay, less pain and a faster recovery.

ENDOMETRIAL ABLATION TECHNIQUES-for heavy periods. TENSION-FREE VAGINAL TAPE(TVT)-for urinary incontinence). UTERINE ARTERY EMBOLIZATION-for fibroids. ADVANCED HYSTEROSCOPIC SURGERY-for polyps or fibroids. UTERUS-SPARING MYOMECTOMY for fibroids. LAPAROSCOPIC HYSTERECTOMY(total or subtotal)-when all else fails.

Many of the conditions that are described in this book may be amenable to medical treatment or other simpler treatment options. What I have attempted to achieve with this book is to provide a focused guide to what you can do when the “easy” answers have failed to provide relief.

Chapter one reviews the basic pertinent anatomy that you need to be able to understand the information laid forth in the book.

Chapter two focuses on providing the essential information regarding the common issues plaguing women today that may result in the need for surgery. These disorders include heavy periods, fibroids, involuntary urine loss and pelvic organ prolapse. Selected non-surgical measures to alleviate these problems are also reviewed in this chapter.

Chapter three provides the reader with the surgical treatment options available. Tried and true techniques as well as those that are on the cutting edge will be explained. Comparisons are made between the various procedures with respect to success rates, complications and other pertinent issues. Estimates of hospital stay and how much time you can expect to take off from work are highlighted. Keep in mind that these times may vary for you as your needs may differ from the average.

It is apparent that there are many different ways to approach a particular surgical problem and to cover all of these would be impossible. I have selected the most common procedures for this book. In some cases the procedures described are perhaps not readily available in your neck of the woods or perhaps your physician was not trained to perform them. Well ya gotta go with what ya got! Perhaps for some it may worthwhile taking a trip to a place where such procedures are readily available. How about Hawaii? Not a bad place to get some R+R after surgery! Some might think that physicians in other parts of the world may have a completely different take on things, when in fact open communication across borders has made many of these procedures available globally. What may not be mainstream today may very well be tomorrow. It may be worth asking your medical provider if one of these procedures is right for you. Don’t be shy, most of us are already used to being handed printouts from the Internet by our patients!

Infused within the chapters I relate heart-warming tales of lives that have been turbo-charged by the course of treatment they chose.

It should be acknowledged that some of the procedures described in this book should be performed by those who have had the experience and training to provide the service and that they are capable of managing, what I call, the collateral damage or the operative complication. The worst of these I call “train wrecks”. Well-meaning and highly qualified surgeons can and will have complications. Recognizing those complications in a timely manner and addressing them is of critical importance in salvaging the situation.

Of paramount significance is the end result with respect to your quality of life following surgical intervention. I a

About the Author

Dr. UdoWahn hails from Sayville, N.Y. Attended The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, The University of Southern California, School of Medicine AND His residency was in OB-GYN, at the LA County –USC Medical Center. He joined the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. He is Assistant Clinical Professor at The University of California, San Diego. Co-authored Your Guys Guide to Gynecology, an award-winning book that has received national attention and acclaim. Served as Expert Medical Reviewer for the Medical Board of California. Married to Aleida he lives in Del Mar, California. The couple awaits the birth of their son, Paolo, due soon.