Publication

[Jon]

Doctor,

You mentioned some time ago that you had published a paper with the data you have accumulated so far.

Did you give a link to that paper or tell us where we could read it? If I missed it, my apologies, but I'm sure most men here would like to read it. Perhaps a PDF of the article could be posted online? I'm certain such a paper will mean that more surgeons will be offering LRP for chronic prostatitis.

[Arnon Krongrad, MD]

I have not published a paper on our data. The only publicly available reports from our data are those posted by a few of our patients, some here, and some on http://ProstatitisSurgery.com (including the videos).

 

It's not clear what a effect a paper would have. And certainly LRP is not a technique that should be practiced by all surgeons. Specialization matters. So while one may admire your optimism, only a prophet can really see the future. :-O

[Jon]

I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood about publication.

 

Anyway, I still think the dissemination of information is important. There must be many skilled surgeons who are doing LRP for cancer patients who might be encouraged to do it for chronic prostatitis patients if they have reliable data regarding its effectiveness.  If there are only a couple of surgeons in the world who are doing this then it's not helpful for the vast majority of sufferers who don't have access to those surgeons.

 

I would have thought, given the many successful outcomes you've had that you would be optimistic too!

[Arnon Krongrad, MD]

Of course! That's what this social network is all about: Sharing of knowledge, experience, and perspective.

 

The broad dissemination of knowledge takes enormous effort, yes? With prostatitis, the networks by which this can be done are absolutely in their infancy. Compare to what's going on with breast cancer and you get the point. So we have to temper optimism with commitment. It's gonna take time.

 

My observations about my patients may cause me to believe that some patients will get better with surgery. That may be a basis for optimism specifically regarding the effect of surgery on symptoms. However, this is wholly apart from the task of publishing, reproducing, disseminating, and causing others to feel the same. This will take a lot of work and even more patience. That's my prediction, for what it's worth.

[Nik]

Arnon, without disclosing actual figures of what "some" represents so far with your observations, would it be at least possible to use a word like "majority" or "minority" so far for example? I know that before any trial is complete that it is not possible to give exact figures etc, but I think many of us would really appreciate at least vague indication of your observations so far. If I am asking too much I apologise in advance.

[Arnon Krongrad, MD]

We have to very carefully characterize the patients I am observing and to not mistake them for patients who have been described elsewhere. Among the critically relevant characteristics are:

• Age
• Symptom severity
• Treatment failures
• Illness duration

If we do that and don't mistakenly apply assessment of this treatment to men whose broad characteristics are different from the population under discussion, then my gut feeling -- and it is a gut feeling, not an analysis based upon large sets of data -- is that the majority will get better.

[Nik]

Thankyou Arnon, much appreciated. Your gut feeling of your own observations is good enough for me.

[Arnon Krongrad, MD]

Jon,

 

The publication is out. Click here.

 

Thx.

[Jon]

Thanks, I'll read the paper with interest. This must be the one you referred to earlier.