New Urology Technology at Pullman Regional Hospital
At some point or another, we've all had an issue with our internal plumbing. Dr. John Keizur discusses different types of problems that he encounters as a urologist, innovative new technologies to help patients who are experiencing issues with their urinary tracts, and more.
Featuring:
The following year, Dr. Keizur was assigned to the US Marines in Okinawa Japan. Returning from military duty overseas, he began - and completed - a Urology residency at the US Naval Hospital in Oakland CA. In 1993 he became Department Head of Urology at Naval Hospital Okinawa Japan. After returning from Okinawa, Dr. Keizur joined the staff at the US Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, VA where he helped train new Urology residents for a year.
John Keizur, MD
Dr. John Keizur's worked as a Board Certified urologist since 1995, and founded Palouse Urology in 1996. In the span leading from his undergraduate studies at Oregon State, Dr. Keizur was accepted into the Health Professions Scholarship program with the U.S. Navy and attended St. Louis Medical School, graduating in 1987. He then spent a year at the US Naval Hospital in Oakland CA on a general surgery internship.The following year, Dr. Keizur was assigned to the US Marines in Okinawa Japan. Returning from military duty overseas, he began - and completed - a Urology residency at the US Naval Hospital in Oakland CA. In 1993 he became Department Head of Urology at Naval Hospital Okinawa Japan. After returning from Okinawa, Dr. Keizur joined the staff at the US Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, VA where he helped train new Urology residents for a year.
Transcription:
Intro: With a relentless focus on excellence in healthcare Pullman Regional Hospital presents the Health Podcast.
Deborah Howell (Host): At some point or another, we've all had an issue with our internal plumbing. Today, we're gonna find out about some innovative new technologies to help patients who are experiencing issues with their urinary tract. And I have a feeling it's gonna be kind of fascinating. To talk about new urology technology at Pullman Regional Hospital. Today, we'd like to welcome Dr. John Keizur, a board certified urologist at Pullman Regional Hospital. . Welcome Dr. Keizur.
Dr John Keizur: Hi Deborah. Thank you for having me on your podcast and excited to be here.
Deborah Howell (Host): Me too. What a pleasure. So let's dive right in as a urologist. Can you give us a brief overview of what types of problems and ailments you can help patients with?
Dr John Keizur: Well sure. In urology, we're going to treat anything that really has to do with the urinary system, and pelvic, floor. So, we'll see patients, typically with prostate issues, kidney stones. urinary incontinence, but also a wide range of cancers of kidney, bladder, prostate, and testicles. So anything that falls under that umbrella, we're gonna take care of.
Deborah Howell (Host): That's a pretty big umbrella. Okay. So you're using a couple of. Be and new technologies to help our patients. What is Urolift and who does it benefit?
Dr John Keizur: So Urolift is something that we're pretty excited to be able to offer here. It is a very minimally invasive treatment for our patients who have enlarged prostates. So, when the prostate gland enlarges in men as they age, it can affect the bladder empty and affect bladder function. And so Urolift is essentially these compressive Springs that we put in that pull open the prostate tissue. So it's very nice because there's no ablative, tissue, there's very minimal side effects. And so it's a nice bridge between patients who are on medications, but maybe are not doing so well. Or maybe they just wanna be off the medications. But they're not so symptomatic that they wanna proceed with invasive surgery. So this is a nice option for them to do.
Deborah Howell (Host): Wow. How new is it?
Dr John Keizur: Well, it's been out for a number of years. We've held off, doing the procedure here in our area, because I wanted to see how it performed. And the studies of shown it's done very well. There's good data that it holds up long term. Majority of patients have good symptomatic improvement with it. And so it's now something that we've now wanted to offer, because it has proven itself.
Deborah Howell (Host): Yeah. Sounds like a wonderful note tool for your tool chest.
Dr John Keizur: It's nice because there's a very minimal side effects since that's the appealing part of it.
Deborah Howell (Host): Yeah, absolutely. Let's talk about blue light cytoscopy it's another exciting technology and quite new as well. What does it do and who does it benefit?
Dr John Keizur: Well blue light, for our patients with bladder cancer. So this is a bladder cancer screening tool. And the notorious thing about bladder cancer is that it has recurrences. And I always tell our patients that the toxins they've been exposed to that cause their initial tumor, can cause additional tumors to show up in the bladder. And so it's real important to pick these up early, when they first arise. And so blue light is a very interesting technology. It's an agent that's put into the bladder ahead of time before we examine the bladder.
And the bladder cells take up this agent, and normal cells will take it up and excrete it quite rapidly, but cancer cells take up the agent and then take longer to get rid of it. And this agent will cause these cells to turn bright pink. When you examine it under a blue. so the great thing about this is that when we look into a bladder with standard white light, we may be missing some tumors that we just can't see. But when we do this with the blue light, we suddenly can now see these small, early lesions that otherwise would've been missed.
And so it's a great technology to give our patients better, long term control and reduced recurrences and a more complete removal of these small tumors.
Deborah Howell (Host): It does sound like a huge leap forward.
Dr John Keizur: Yeah. So we're really excited about this, to bring this in.
Deborah Howell (Host): So this has been around for a while. Pullman Regional Hospital recently upgraded the DaVinci robotic assisted surgery system. What benefits can patients expect from robotic assisted surgery?
Dr John Keizur: Well, the robotic surgery we like to do because It is more minimally invasive than open surgery. And so, our patients have smaller incisions, they're back on their feet quicker, they have less postoperative pain and just, less invasiveness of the procedure. And so we've had the robot technology here for a number of years, but recently have now upgraded to their new machine. Which gives us more versatility in how we position the machine to the patient. We can come at different angles, we can do different techniques and different positioning.
And it allows us to expand what we can do, in a minimally invasive realm. And I think, at least, early on the imaging seems better with the newer system and the instruments that we can use are a little more versatile, to be able to expand what kind of procedures we can do. So we're real excited about this.
Deborah Howell (Host): Do you do a lot of training when the new equipment comes into view?
Dr John Keizur: I've had extensive training with the older system and a lot of the surgical techniques are the same with the new system versus the old system. So we have had training, but the training is more involved in the nuts and bolts of the actual machine of how it's, brought in and set up and those kind of things, the technical stuff, but not necessarily training on the actual procedure.
Deborah Howell (Host): Okay. Got it. Dr. Kaeizur. Why are you so excited about using these new tools with your patients?
Dr John Keizur: Well, all these new technologies just expand and improve outcomes for patients and gives them options. And choices of how they wanna approach things. So it is nice to be able to offer this I feel very fortunate to be in this area. Pullman Regional Hospital is a small community hospital, but it's really impressive on how they can offer. These latest innovative technologies. So patients don't have to travel to other places and they can stay local. And I think staying on the cutting edge, especially in the surgical theater is pretty important and it's, very helpful for patients.
Deborah Howell (Host): Yeah, especially if they don't have to travel hours and hours to see their Specialists. All these tools and new equipment and new technology, how has urology changed, in just the scope of your career?
Dr John Keizur: Urology, when I first started was world's difference from how it is now. In medicine in general, things change every year. You have to always continually educate yourself to update cuz everything is different every year. New things come out. New ways of looking at things, new treatments, new medications. When I first started, there was no minimally invasive surgery. It didn't exist and everything was open surgery and, a little more morbidity associated with things. And so it's changed tremendously in that sense, that it's, less invasive, less pain.
We have many more options of how to manage things. When I first started, when somebody had an enlarged prostate, it was either taking a pill or it was doing significant invasive surgery to open things up. And now there's a whole lot of options in between those two steps.
Deborah Howell (Host): A much, much better day. When I think of my dad, I think about him kicking back with a cigar and JAMA magazine, trying to stay on the cutting edge.
Dr John Keizur: Yes, you can't stay where you're at. You always have to keep evolving.
Deborah Howell (Host): Well, we really appreciate your time, Dr. Kaiser and everything you do to help our patients. Thanks so much for being with us today.
Dr John Keizur: Thank you, Deborah. Thank you very much.
Deborah Howell (Host): And you can learn more about this subject providers and services at Pullman Regional Hospital, online at pullmanregional.org/urology. This has been The Health Podcast from Pullman Regional. I'm your host, Debrorah Howel,l thanks for listening and have yourself a terrific day.
Intro: With a relentless focus on excellence in healthcare Pullman Regional Hospital presents the Health Podcast.
Deborah Howell (Host): At some point or another, we've all had an issue with our internal plumbing. Today, we're gonna find out about some innovative new technologies to help patients who are experiencing issues with their urinary tract. And I have a feeling it's gonna be kind of fascinating. To talk about new urology technology at Pullman Regional Hospital. Today, we'd like to welcome Dr. John Keizur, a board certified urologist at Pullman Regional Hospital. . Welcome Dr. Keizur.
Dr John Keizur: Hi Deborah. Thank you for having me on your podcast and excited to be here.
Deborah Howell (Host): Me too. What a pleasure. So let's dive right in as a urologist. Can you give us a brief overview of what types of problems and ailments you can help patients with?
Dr John Keizur: Well sure. In urology, we're going to treat anything that really has to do with the urinary system, and pelvic, floor. So, we'll see patients, typically with prostate issues, kidney stones. urinary incontinence, but also a wide range of cancers of kidney, bladder, prostate, and testicles. So anything that falls under that umbrella, we're gonna take care of.
Deborah Howell (Host): That's a pretty big umbrella. Okay. So you're using a couple of. Be and new technologies to help our patients. What is Urolift and who does it benefit?
Dr John Keizur: So Urolift is something that we're pretty excited to be able to offer here. It is a very minimally invasive treatment for our patients who have enlarged prostates. So, when the prostate gland enlarges in men as they age, it can affect the bladder empty and affect bladder function. And so Urolift is essentially these compressive Springs that we put in that pull open the prostate tissue. So it's very nice because there's no ablative, tissue, there's very minimal side effects. And so it's a nice bridge between patients who are on medications, but maybe are not doing so well. Or maybe they just wanna be off the medications. But they're not so symptomatic that they wanna proceed with invasive surgery. So this is a nice option for them to do.
Deborah Howell (Host): Wow. How new is it?
Dr John Keizur: Well, it's been out for a number of years. We've held off, doing the procedure here in our area, because I wanted to see how it performed. And the studies of shown it's done very well. There's good data that it holds up long term. Majority of patients have good symptomatic improvement with it. And so it's now something that we've now wanted to offer, because it has proven itself.
Deborah Howell (Host): Yeah. Sounds like a wonderful note tool for your tool chest.
Dr John Keizur: It's nice because there's a very minimal side effects since that's the appealing part of it.
Deborah Howell (Host): Yeah, absolutely. Let's talk about blue light cytoscopy it's another exciting technology and quite new as well. What does it do and who does it benefit?
Dr John Keizur: Well blue light, for our patients with bladder cancer. So this is a bladder cancer screening tool. And the notorious thing about bladder cancer is that it has recurrences. And I always tell our patients that the toxins they've been exposed to that cause their initial tumor, can cause additional tumors to show up in the bladder. And so it's real important to pick these up early, when they first arise. And so blue light is a very interesting technology. It's an agent that's put into the bladder ahead of time before we examine the bladder.
And the bladder cells take up this agent, and normal cells will take it up and excrete it quite rapidly, but cancer cells take up the agent and then take longer to get rid of it. And this agent will cause these cells to turn bright pink. When you examine it under a blue. so the great thing about this is that when we look into a bladder with standard white light, we may be missing some tumors that we just can't see. But when we do this with the blue light, we suddenly can now see these small, early lesions that otherwise would've been missed.
And so it's a great technology to give our patients better, long term control and reduced recurrences and a more complete removal of these small tumors.
Deborah Howell (Host): It does sound like a huge leap forward.
Dr John Keizur: Yeah. So we're really excited about this, to bring this in.
Deborah Howell (Host): So this has been around for a while. Pullman Regional Hospital recently upgraded the DaVinci robotic assisted surgery system. What benefits can patients expect from robotic assisted surgery?
Dr John Keizur: Well, the robotic surgery we like to do because It is more minimally invasive than open surgery. And so, our patients have smaller incisions, they're back on their feet quicker, they have less postoperative pain and just, less invasiveness of the procedure. And so we've had the robot technology here for a number of years, but recently have now upgraded to their new machine. Which gives us more versatility in how we position the machine to the patient. We can come at different angles, we can do different techniques and different positioning.
And it allows us to expand what we can do, in a minimally invasive realm. And I think, at least, early on the imaging seems better with the newer system and the instruments that we can use are a little more versatile, to be able to expand what kind of procedures we can do. So we're real excited about this.
Deborah Howell (Host): Do you do a lot of training when the new equipment comes into view?
Dr John Keizur: I've had extensive training with the older system and a lot of the surgical techniques are the same with the new system versus the old system. So we have had training, but the training is more involved in the nuts and bolts of the actual machine of how it's, brought in and set up and those kind of things, the technical stuff, but not necessarily training on the actual procedure.
Deborah Howell (Host): Okay. Got it. Dr. Kaeizur. Why are you so excited about using these new tools with your patients?
Dr John Keizur: Well, all these new technologies just expand and improve outcomes for patients and gives them options. And choices of how they wanna approach things. So it is nice to be able to offer this I feel very fortunate to be in this area. Pullman Regional Hospital is a small community hospital, but it's really impressive on how they can offer. These latest innovative technologies. So patients don't have to travel to other places and they can stay local. And I think staying on the cutting edge, especially in the surgical theater is pretty important and it's, very helpful for patients.
Deborah Howell (Host): Yeah, especially if they don't have to travel hours and hours to see their Specialists. All these tools and new equipment and new technology, how has urology changed, in just the scope of your career?
Dr John Keizur: Urology, when I first started was world's difference from how it is now. In medicine in general, things change every year. You have to always continually educate yourself to update cuz everything is different every year. New things come out. New ways of looking at things, new treatments, new medications. When I first started, there was no minimally invasive surgery. It didn't exist and everything was open surgery and, a little more morbidity associated with things. And so it's changed tremendously in that sense, that it's, less invasive, less pain.
We have many more options of how to manage things. When I first started, when somebody had an enlarged prostate, it was either taking a pill or it was doing significant invasive surgery to open things up. And now there's a whole lot of options in between those two steps.
Deborah Howell (Host): A much, much better day. When I think of my dad, I think about him kicking back with a cigar and JAMA magazine, trying to stay on the cutting edge.
Dr John Keizur: Yes, you can't stay where you're at. You always have to keep evolving.
Deborah Howell (Host): Well, we really appreciate your time, Dr. Kaiser and everything you do to help our patients. Thanks so much for being with us today.
Dr John Keizur: Thank you, Deborah. Thank you very much.
Deborah Howell (Host): And you can learn more about this subject providers and services at Pullman Regional Hospital, online at pullmanregional.org/urology. This has been The Health Podcast from Pullman Regional. I'm your host, Debrorah Howel,l thanks for listening and have yourself a terrific day.