Dr. Ithaar Derweesh, a surgeon at the University of California, San Diego, has just published research that links complete kidney removal with increased chance of sexual dysfunction.
The significance of this finding lies also in the fact that partial kidney removal seems to improve a man’s chance concerning ED.
The Study
Dr. Derweesh studied two groups of men. 264 patients underwent a “radical nephrectomy,” meaning total kidney removal, while the other 168 underwent a partial nephrectomy. The total number of men was 432 patients.
They’d all undergone a nephrectomy because of renal cell carcinoma, a type of cancer that’s one of the most common causes for kidney removal. The surgeries occurred over a time span between January 1988 and December 2007.
Dr. Derweesh kept up with each of these patients, evaluating their overall medical histories up to six years following their nephrectomy operations. The overall results were surprising: 29.5% of those patients who’d undergone a radical nephrectomy had new problems with ED. Only 9.5% of patients who’d undergone the partial nephrectomy did.
Unfortunately, many of the radical nephrectomies were inevitable in these patient’s cases, but some of them may not have been. Complete kidney removal usually happens because of the size of the tumor. But with these findings, doctors should consider even more strongly whether part of the kidney can be saved or not.
Partial Nephrectomy Information
A partial nephrectomy clearly has at least one big advantage: reduced chances of ED developing later.
But it’s also becoming clear that sparing at least part of the kidney has other important benefits. One is better metabolic function, which equals better overall quality of life. It also prevents osteoporosis, which is a huge consideration later in life.
There are some disadvantages though, which you should talk over carefully with your
doctor. A partial kidney removal is a much more complicated procedure, one that can result in severe blood loss or rupturing of the urinary passage. Both have severe consequences, and must be taken into consideration.
Conclusions
It’s amazing what we keep discovering about relatively tried-and-true procedures. Modern medicine is definitely still advancing, though it sometimes feels like we’ve already arrived.
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