Urologists in Southern California

Related to other fields of medicine including oncology and gynecology, urology is the medical field that is concerned with diagnosing and treating issues of the urinary tract. Urology focuses on urological disorders that affect the urinary tract in both men and women. Urological disorders may require surgery.

Common Urology Disorders
Urology covers multiple organs related to the urinary tract. Organs encompassed by urology in both men and women include:

• Kidneys
• Urethra
• Urinary Bladder
• Ureter
• Adrenal Glands

As a result of the urinary system and reproductive system overlap in men, urologists also treat and diagnose disorders within the testes, prostate, vas deferens, penis, and seminal vesicles.
Urologists often treat a multitude of disorders including:

• Kidney Stones – Stones that are made of hard deposits of acid salts and mineral that form within the kidney as a result of high urine concentration that allows minerals to become crystalized and stick together.
• Urinary Incontinence – This disorder is also known as the loss of control of the bladder and can range in severity from occasional urinary leakage to urges to urinate caused by a cough or sneeze.
• Sexual Dysfunction – These can incorporate disorders that affect sexual desire, arousal, or pain disorders such as erectile dysfunction, male impotence, frigidity in women, premature ejaculation, or dyspareunia (painful intercourse).
• Hysterectomies – Although the complete or partial removal of the womb is typically performed by a gynecologist, there may be instances where an urologist will be utilized in this type of surgery.

There are many other types of disorders that may require the expertise of an urologist including prostate cancer, tumors of the kidneys and bladder, or difficulty, pain, or blood when urinating.

Urological Surgery

There are several types of disciplines within the field of urology that address specific issues of the urinary tract, one of which is endourology. Endourology provides minimally-invasive surgical treatments to deal with these disorders instead of utilizing open surgeries, using small instruments and cameras to perform surgical procedures.

One of the most common types of endourology is transurethral surgery, which is used to perform kidney stone surgery, prostate surgery, and the removal of tumors in the urinary tract among others by going through the urethra.

It may be beneficial or necessary to perform these surgeries through the technique known as laparoscopy, using a lighted and thin tube with a camera on the end to perform minimally-invasive surgery. Robot assisted surgery may also be performed to conduct surgeries such as a prostatectomy (the removal of the prostate).