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Urology
Urologists treat many conditions related to urinary symptoms. Dr. Ramaiah Indudhara, Vice Chief of Staff, discusses what urologists diagnose and treat.
Featuring:
Ramaiah Indudhara, MD
Dr. Ramaiah Indudhara is a Board Certified Urology Specialist and Vice Chief of Staff at Pioneers Memorial Hospital. He is a member of the American Board of Urology and joined PIONEERS in 2017 following a tour in Afghanistan as a U.S. Army Reserve Physician (Colonel). Dr.Indudhara is Board Certified in Urology and Fellowship-trained in Kidney-Pancreas transplant surgery and dialysis access. He’s written many publications on Urology that have been published worldwide. He is a member of the American Board of Urology and several other medical societies. He also has an M.B.A. in Healthcare. At Pioneers, he focuses on a wide variety of urology issues in men and women, both adult and children. Transcription:
Prakash Chandran (Host): Kidney stones, UTIs and overactive bladders. These are just some of the conditions that a urologist treats. But what else do they do and when should you see one? Let’s talk with Dr. Ramaiah Indudhara, a board certified Urology Specialist and Vice Chief of Staff at Pioneers Memorial Hospital.
This is Pioneers Memorial Health Talk, the podcast from Pioneers Memorial Hospital. I’m Prakash Chandran. So, firs of all, Dr. Indudhara, can you tell us a little bit about what urology is what kind of conditions you treat as a urologist?
Ramaiah Indudhara, MD (Guest): A urologist deals with specifically conditions related to urinary system which includes the kidneys, the bladder and the genital organs both in females and males of all ages.
Host: I see and some of those like I mentioned are UTIs, or overactive bladder. I hear you also deal with like male reproductive things. is that true as well?
Dr. Indudhara: That’s correct.
Host: And so when generally should someone visit a urologist like yourself versus a general physician?
Dr. Indudhara: Most often patients seek attention for urological issues or abdominal pain which sometimes is not always easy to diagnose because it’s related to kidney stones. So, they end up in the emergency room and x-rays are done and they get diagnosed with urinary problem, most often a kidney stones or blockage or a bad kidney infection and the urologist get involved in their care. In the genital system, when the urinary symptoms sometimes they are very slowly worsening. Most often we blame it on I’m getting old. But if this seems to be affecting your quality of life; that’s a signal that you need to be seen.
For example, getting up at night is a common problem to go to the bathroom. And it’s very subjective. Some people are very bothered if they get up once or twice, some don’t mind getting up five times and going back to bed. So, it’s more of a botheration and if it becomes bothersome that’s something you need to be seeking urology attention.
Host: I understand. So, I’m actually interested to learn a little bit more about the demographic of people that you serve at Pioneers. I know that prostate issues really affect people on the older side, but I imagine that kidney stones don’t discriminate. So, maybe talk a little bit about that.
Dr. Indudhara: Urinary symptoms occur across all age groups. And they can be related to many reasons. The age can affect the cause of the urinary problem. Kidney stones are common in young, old and both genders and it’s extremely common. So, there is no age differentiation there. The prostate related problems are likely to be related more commonly in men more than 50 years old and more importantly, there are comorbid medical conditions that can make things worse. And that can contribute to the urinary symptoms.
Host: You mentioned kidney stones and I want to focus in on that for a second because I had a college roommate that had a kidney stone and I watched him go through passing it and it was just such – I mean it was such a painful experience for me to watch him do. So, I’d love to learn a little bit about the factors that contribute to why we get kidney stones that patients should be aware of.
Dr. Indudhara: Wonderful. Now kidney stones are extremely common unfortunately. And it’s common in almost all geographical areas of the country including ours. And it occurs – it is seen in young and old and both genders and a lot of things we still learning as to what makes kidney stones. And obviously there are some simple reasons such as we don’t drink enough water or liquids and family condense to kidney stones and one of the most important cause of kidney stones, I’ll mention is overweight and that’s a definitely direct correlation overweight and kidney stone occurrence, but kidney stones occur in very thin people also.
The other common factor is that high protein intake which specifically refers to eating too much meat related products can be a risk factor. So, what I generally tell patients is that anything that is bad for your heart is bad for the kidneys and same factors cause similar situations. Other less common causes would be frequent infections, can be a cause of kidney stones but can also be due to kidney stones. So, these are the common but, in the majority, we are not always able to pinpoint one particular cause or more than one cause.
Host: And what about more serious conditions, like do you treat any sort of cancers kind of in the urinary tract at Pioneers?
Dr. Indudhara: Absolutely. Like any other system, urinary tract is one of the common origins of a lot of cancers and indeed prostate cancer is probably still the second most common cancer diagnosed in the country and we see a significant volume of prostate cancer of all ages and kidney cancer and bladder cancer. These are the most common. Less often are the reproductive organ cancers that we see.
Host: Yeah, and I’m curious as to if there’s anyway that we can prevent the onset of some of these things like prostate cancer. My dad, he’s 80, he goes to the bathroom a lot at night and I wonder is this a leading indicator of the prostate cancer to come? Like what can we do to prevent this? So maybe talk a little bit about that.
Dr. Indudhara: Prostate cancer is unique in many ways. It’s one of the commonest cancers and unfortunately, there are no cancer specific early symptoms. So a lot of urinary problems that we see may not be due to prostate cancer, but they may be a warning signal to be seen. And one of the common blood tests that has bee extremely popular in the last several decades is called a PSA, a prostate specific antigen test. And it’s most often done by the primary care physicians the family doctors when they do their annual blood checkup. And there are definite guidelines when they need to be addressed so that would be one of the important steps and also, it’s very important to have a clinical examination and in combination would be one of the ways to pick up these early, early stage.
Host: Yeah, it really seems like the right thing to do is to get yourself checked early and often just to make sure that everything is okay. So, Dr. Indudhara I’d love to ask what do you enjoy most about being a doctor at Pioneers?
Dr. Indudhara: I enjoy being a doctor by interaction. It’s such a wonderful experience. I’ve been in this profession for 20 years or plus. It’s for me, it’s like a 24/7 schedule and the fact that I’m able to help somebody in whatever small way everyday and the person leaves the office saying thank you and I got benefit, that’s the best thing that I can – reward that I can get any day. And I tell patients that I learn from every patient and every patient is a teacher for me so I’m able to grow up, I’m able to help the next patient because of what I learned from the previous one so, it’s a wonderful experience. Pioneers is a great place. There is such a camaraderie and there is a sense of working together as a family and more importantly everybody’s work is appreciated. It’s not about who you are but what you do and how you interact with others. So, in short, it’s a wonderful family. People love to come and work and I’m part of that system.
Host: All right Dr. Indudhara, well we certainly appreciate that. That’s Dr. Ramaiah Indudhara, a board certified Urology Specialist and Vice Chief of Staff at Pioneers Memorial Hospital. Thanks for checking out this episode of Pioneers Memorial Health Talk. Head to www.pmhd.org to get connected with a provider. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library of topics of interest to you. Thanks and we’ll see you next time.
Prakash Chandran (Host): Kidney stones, UTIs and overactive bladders. These are just some of the conditions that a urologist treats. But what else do they do and when should you see one? Let’s talk with Dr. Ramaiah Indudhara, a board certified Urology Specialist and Vice Chief of Staff at Pioneers Memorial Hospital.
This is Pioneers Memorial Health Talk, the podcast from Pioneers Memorial Hospital. I’m Prakash Chandran. So, firs of all, Dr. Indudhara, can you tell us a little bit about what urology is what kind of conditions you treat as a urologist?
Ramaiah Indudhara, MD (Guest): A urologist deals with specifically conditions related to urinary system which includes the kidneys, the bladder and the genital organs both in females and males of all ages.
Host: I see and some of those like I mentioned are UTIs, or overactive bladder. I hear you also deal with like male reproductive things. is that true as well?
Dr. Indudhara: That’s correct.
Host: And so when generally should someone visit a urologist like yourself versus a general physician?
Dr. Indudhara: Most often patients seek attention for urological issues or abdominal pain which sometimes is not always easy to diagnose because it’s related to kidney stones. So, they end up in the emergency room and x-rays are done and they get diagnosed with urinary problem, most often a kidney stones or blockage or a bad kidney infection and the urologist get involved in their care. In the genital system, when the urinary symptoms sometimes they are very slowly worsening. Most often we blame it on I’m getting old. But if this seems to be affecting your quality of life; that’s a signal that you need to be seen.
For example, getting up at night is a common problem to go to the bathroom. And it’s very subjective. Some people are very bothered if they get up once or twice, some don’t mind getting up five times and going back to bed. So, it’s more of a botheration and if it becomes bothersome that’s something you need to be seeking urology attention.
Host: I understand. So, I’m actually interested to learn a little bit more about the demographic of people that you serve at Pioneers. I know that prostate issues really affect people on the older side, but I imagine that kidney stones don’t discriminate. So, maybe talk a little bit about that.
Dr. Indudhara: Urinary symptoms occur across all age groups. And they can be related to many reasons. The age can affect the cause of the urinary problem. Kidney stones are common in young, old and both genders and it’s extremely common. So, there is no age differentiation there. The prostate related problems are likely to be related more commonly in men more than 50 years old and more importantly, there are comorbid medical conditions that can make things worse. And that can contribute to the urinary symptoms.
Host: You mentioned kidney stones and I want to focus in on that for a second because I had a college roommate that had a kidney stone and I watched him go through passing it and it was just such – I mean it was such a painful experience for me to watch him do. So, I’d love to learn a little bit about the factors that contribute to why we get kidney stones that patients should be aware of.
Dr. Indudhara: Wonderful. Now kidney stones are extremely common unfortunately. And it’s common in almost all geographical areas of the country including ours. And it occurs – it is seen in young and old and both genders and a lot of things we still learning as to what makes kidney stones. And obviously there are some simple reasons such as we don’t drink enough water or liquids and family condense to kidney stones and one of the most important cause of kidney stones, I’ll mention is overweight and that’s a definitely direct correlation overweight and kidney stone occurrence, but kidney stones occur in very thin people also.
The other common factor is that high protein intake which specifically refers to eating too much meat related products can be a risk factor. So, what I generally tell patients is that anything that is bad for your heart is bad for the kidneys and same factors cause similar situations. Other less common causes would be frequent infections, can be a cause of kidney stones but can also be due to kidney stones. So, these are the common but, in the majority, we are not always able to pinpoint one particular cause or more than one cause.
Host: And what about more serious conditions, like do you treat any sort of cancers kind of in the urinary tract at Pioneers?
Dr. Indudhara: Absolutely. Like any other system, urinary tract is one of the common origins of a lot of cancers and indeed prostate cancer is probably still the second most common cancer diagnosed in the country and we see a significant volume of prostate cancer of all ages and kidney cancer and bladder cancer. These are the most common. Less often are the reproductive organ cancers that we see.
Host: Yeah, and I’m curious as to if there’s anyway that we can prevent the onset of some of these things like prostate cancer. My dad, he’s 80, he goes to the bathroom a lot at night and I wonder is this a leading indicator of the prostate cancer to come? Like what can we do to prevent this? So maybe talk a little bit about that.
Dr. Indudhara: Prostate cancer is unique in many ways. It’s one of the commonest cancers and unfortunately, there are no cancer specific early symptoms. So a lot of urinary problems that we see may not be due to prostate cancer, but they may be a warning signal to be seen. And one of the common blood tests that has bee extremely popular in the last several decades is called a PSA, a prostate specific antigen test. And it’s most often done by the primary care physicians the family doctors when they do their annual blood checkup. And there are definite guidelines when they need to be addressed so that would be one of the important steps and also, it’s very important to have a clinical examination and in combination would be one of the ways to pick up these early, early stage.
Host: Yeah, it really seems like the right thing to do is to get yourself checked early and often just to make sure that everything is okay. So, Dr. Indudhara I’d love to ask what do you enjoy most about being a doctor at Pioneers?
Dr. Indudhara: I enjoy being a doctor by interaction. It’s such a wonderful experience. I’ve been in this profession for 20 years or plus. It’s for me, it’s like a 24/7 schedule and the fact that I’m able to help somebody in whatever small way everyday and the person leaves the office saying thank you and I got benefit, that’s the best thing that I can – reward that I can get any day. And I tell patients that I learn from every patient and every patient is a teacher for me so I’m able to grow up, I’m able to help the next patient because of what I learned from the previous one so, it’s a wonderful experience. Pioneers is a great place. There is such a camaraderie and there is a sense of working together as a family and more importantly everybody’s work is appreciated. It’s not about who you are but what you do and how you interact with others. So, in short, it’s a wonderful family. People love to come and work and I’m part of that system.
Host: All right Dr. Indudhara, well we certainly appreciate that. That’s Dr. Ramaiah Indudhara, a board certified Urology Specialist and Vice Chief of Staff at Pioneers Memorial Hospital. Thanks for checking out this episode of Pioneers Memorial Health Talk. Head to www.pmhd.org to get connected with a provider. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library of topics of interest to you. Thanks and we’ll see you next time.