Ablatherm vs Sonablate (Page 4 of 8)

Why Choose Maple Leaf HIFU?

If you are considering traveling out of the United States for HIFU treatment, you should strongly consider the following:

While there are significant advantages in favor of the Ablatherm over the Sonablate device (detailed here), there are other important reasons to opt for Maple Leaf HIFU over other HIFU practitioners.

Dr. William Orovan

Whenever you require a medical procedure of any kind, it is of the utmost importance to select an expert in that procedure. Maple Leaf HIFU’s medical director, Dr. William Orovan, is the chief of surgery at McMaster University, and he is also the most experienced Ablatherm HIFU urologist in North America. In addition to performing over 350 procedures, Dr. Orovan has also proctored urologists performing an additional 150 procedures. He is not only an investigator in the ongoing US FDA trial, but also has trained other physician investigators involved in the study.

If your US urologist has recommended that you travel outside of the country for HIFU, you should also be aware of the New York Times article that was written in early 2008. Found here, the article raises ethical questions about physicians who travel outside of the US with their patients who are undergoing HIFU. If your urologist intends to travel with you when you have HIFU, you should ask him whether or not he will be personally performing the procedure. If he says that he indeed will be performing it, you need to then ask him how many procedures he has previously performed, what sort of results he has obtained, and whether he is properly credentialed to practice medicine in your destination country. If he is not going to personally perform the procedure, the urologist should then be asked if he is going with you so that he can receive a $5,000 to $7, 000 fee for accompanying you.

It is encouraging to witness the growing population of US physicians who recognize the value of HIFU in treating prostate cancer while minimizing side effects, but doctors also owe it to their patients to advise them of the best technology available and of the experts in the treatment. Unfortunately, some urologists may be swayed by the opportunity for financial gain. If your doctor is advising you to be treated on a Sonablate device, do your own research as well and make sure you feel completely comfortable with the expertise of the treating urologist, the effectiveness of the device, and the motivation of your own physician.

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