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In this interview, Margaret S. Pearle, MD, PhD, discusses the diagnosis, treatment, surgical skills, and training needed to manage challenging kidney stones.

The outline of health care reform under the Obama presidency is beginning to take shape. While there will be positive developments for urologists, there are also areas of potential concern.

Federal regulators have judged the first phase of the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program a success, but the controversial plan promises potential headaches for physicians as it moves into its second phase.

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Contemporary financial challenges call for creative thinking on the part of the physician-cum-small business operator. One idea that is gaining popularity is in-office dispensing of medications.

Like everyone else, I'm frustrated and confused by the stock market and the global economic situation. How can I reduce the risk in my portfolio but still have it grow for the long term?

Physicians and managers are accustomed to dealing with staff members who aren't happy at work and can't seem to get along, but what do you do when it's the physicians and management who are at odds?

There is no code for a radical cystectomy. You will have to use the code for a "total" cystectomy.

Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is a common congenital anomaly affecting close to 1% of all children. It is often associated with other ureteral anomalies, including ureteral duplication, ectopia, ureteroceles, and paraureteral (Hutch) diverticula.

Two studies of blunt kidney trauma, one from Switzerland and one from the United States, reached essentially the same conclusion: Conservative management is likely to be the best path when confronting most cases of blunt renal trauma.

Based on new mid-term study results, robot-assisted laparoscopic cystectomy appears to be slowly moving toward mainstream surgical practice.

Vesicoureteral reflux appears to be the most common complication of ureteral reimplantation at the time of kidney transplantation, as indicated by findings from St. Barnabas Healthcare System, Livingston, NJ.

Statin drugs appear to have no effect on intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) treatment outcomes in patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, according to a recent retrospective study among Veterans Affairs patients in St. Louis.

Perirenal hematoma characteristics determined by computed tomography may be suggestive of the need for angiographic embolization in patients who present with blunt renal trauma, a study from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, suggests.

"I am optimistic about urology, regardless of what the president does."

The practicing urologist faces an increasingly common dilemma: How should I treat this incidentally discovered small renal mass?

Urology Times asked urologists around the country whether the ability of a dissatisfied patient to broadcast his discontent on the Internet has changed the way they deal with those patients and whether additional measures are needed to prevent those patients from trashing a physician's reputation online.

Second-look flexible nephroscopy after percutaneous nephrolithotomy is cost-effective only for patients who have larger residual stone fragments.

Rising temperatures associated with global warming may be accompanied by a significant, costly increase in the incidence of kidney stones. Climate change may increase stone incidence rates by up to 30% in some regions.

Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), a popular form of weight reduction surgery for morbidly obese patients, significantly elevates the risk of kidney stone formation.

A small percentage of males born with cryptorchidism are more likely to have genetic mutations, including those for a syndrome that is a common genetic cause of infertility, according to a study by Italian researchers.

A new report from the nation's leading cancer organizations shows that, for the first time since the report was first issued in 1998, both incidence and death rates for all cancers combined are decreasing for both men and women, driven largely by declines in prostate, breast, and other common cancers.

Patients receiving NX-1207, an investigational drug for BPH, experienced significant quantitative improvement in urgency and frequency of urination, according to Nymox Pharmaceuticals, the drug's manufacturer.

Overactive bladder patients treated with solifenacin succinate (VESIcare) experience significant increases in warning time before having to urinate, according to a study published in the online edition of Urology.

Selenium may aid in the prevention of high-risk bladder cancer, according to a study by researchers from Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH. The news follows a less-encouraging report from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) showing that supplementation with selenium or vitamin E was not associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer.

Serial PSA screening may play a role in improving outcomes for patients who are diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, PA, will offer what it's calling a first-of-its-kind clinical guarantee on robot-assisted radical prostatectomies.

The FDA has accepted the new drug application for a 6-month formulation of triptorelin pamoate (Trelstar), a luteinizing hormone releasing hormone agonist for the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer, according to Watson Pharmaceuticals, the drug's manufacturer.

Use of a novel template-guided prostate biopsy system potentially produces a higher cancer detection rate and more accurate assessment of grade, according to an article in the British Journal of Urology (2008; 102:546-50).

A European phase III double-blind placebo controlled study of PSD502, a proprietary formulation of lidocaine and prilocaine for the treatment of premature ejaculation, has met its three co-primary endpoints of intra-vaginal ejaculation latency time (IELT) and index of premature ejaculation (IPE), Plethora Solutions Holdings PLC has announced.