TRASCRIZIONE 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:24.710 --> 00:00:28.641
Hello, this is Jason Edwards with Doc Discussions, and I'm here with Dr Patrick Yeung .
00:00:28.641 --> 00:00:30.113
Patrick, how are you doing today, sir?
00:00:31.096 --> 00:00:31.376
Great.
00:00:31.416 --> 00:00:32.320
Thanks so much for having me.
00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:35.597
You bet Now, Patrick, you're an OB-GYN, is that right?
00:00:36.158 --> 00:00:36.479
Yes, sir.
00:00:36.951 --> 00:00:40.801
But you specialize in a very niche field.
00:00:40.801 --> 00:00:42.153
Can you tell us about that?
00:00:42.536 --> 00:00:43.358
Yes, no, thank you.
00:00:43.358 --> 00:00:51.474
I always say I'm a slow learner, but hopefully when I get it, I get it.
00:00:51.474 --> 00:00:52.878
I did two residencies and two fellowships to do what I do.
00:00:52.878 --> 00:00:52.997
Which?
00:00:52.997 --> 00:00:53.899
Which residents and fellowships did you do?
00:00:53.899 --> 00:00:54.983
I did a family practice first.
00:00:54.983 --> 00:00:57.713
Okay, At St John's mercy, it was called at the time.
00:00:57.954 --> 00:00:58.155
Yeah.
00:00:58.216 --> 00:01:08.379
Now it's, you know, mercy, and then OBGYN, and then a fellowship in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, and then a mini fellowship or an extra fellowship to learn to use the laser.
00:01:08.379 --> 00:01:11.745
We can talk about that, but that is my cutting tool of choice.
00:01:11.745 --> 00:01:19.840
That's a very precise, non-contact cutting tool To be able to treat endometriosis.
00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:21.063
That is what I treat.
00:01:21.063 --> 00:01:24.441
So I have a what's called a restore center for endometriosis.
00:01:24.441 --> 00:01:30.703
We talk about offering a root cause treatment to remove this disease.
00:01:30.703 --> 00:01:33.840
Most people just burn it, for lack of a better word.
00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:39.275
They're trying to destroy the tissue or the implants with energy, but they don't remove it.
00:01:39.275 --> 00:01:55.218
By removing it we're showing great outcomes that are better than or different from the usual or status quo treatments for pain or for fertility, which are really Band-Aid therapy or bypass therapy.
00:01:56.031 --> 00:01:57.838
I'm going to back up just a touch.
00:01:57.838 --> 00:02:00.998
So you did your training at Duke, is that right?
00:02:01.349 --> 00:02:03.197
I was there for three years, my first real job.
00:02:03.197 --> 00:02:03.759
I say yes.
00:02:03.759 --> 00:02:05.926
And then you ran their endometriosis center.
00:02:05.966 --> 00:02:06.370
Is that right I?
00:02:06.390 --> 00:02:07.396
began a center for endo at Duke Very good.
00:02:07.396 --> 00:02:08.581
And then I'm going to go back and endometriosis center.
00:02:08.602 --> 00:02:09.185
Is that right began a center?
00:02:09.185 --> 00:02:13.679
For endo at duke very good and then, and then I'm going to go back and and um endometriosis.
00:02:13.679 --> 00:02:15.081
Now I'm going to give my definition.
00:02:15.081 --> 00:02:17.836
Load full transcript
You tell me if I'm right or wrong and then slew after that.
00:02:17.956 --> 00:02:20.242
So st louis university began a center there.
00:02:20.361 --> 00:02:26.911
I was there for 10 years very now private practice here at st luke's, and you and don summers work closely together.
00:02:26.911 --> 00:02:27.370
Is that right?
00:02:27.411 --> 00:02:38.165
yeah, I have an independent but we operate here at St Luke's for mostly the deep endo or advanced endo cases that can involve the bowel, sometimes the bowel resection.
00:02:38.165 --> 00:02:39.936
Those are done with Dr Summers, who's here.
00:02:40.016 --> 00:02:46.094
Yes, so my understanding is you know you have this the lining of the uterus.
00:02:46.094 --> 00:03:02.326
It's this thin layer of cells called the endometrium and they slough off and go out of the fallopian tubes and into the pelvis and grow into these, sometimes masses, that cause trouble with the anatomy and inflammation in the pelvis.
00:03:02.326 --> 00:03:02.728
Is that?
00:03:03.310 --> 00:03:03.510
Okay.
00:03:03.510 --> 00:03:06.498
So a two-word definition is ectopic endometrium Okay?
00:03:06.498 --> 00:03:08.665
Is ectopic endometrium Okay?
00:03:08.665 --> 00:03:14.534
Which means cells that are normally in the lining shed during the period, found in the wrong place, outside the uterus.
00:03:14.534 --> 00:03:18.319
So now, how do they get there, is the question.
00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:20.817
So again, they're, by definition, outside the uterus.
00:03:21.189 --> 00:03:22.657
The number one symptom is painless periods.
00:03:22.657 --> 00:03:26.221
It can affect or cause pain and infertility.
00:03:26.221 --> 00:03:41.438
The number one theory of how they get outside the uterus is this backflow theory that you described, or the retrograde menstruation theory of SAMHSA, which is when a woman is having her period she bleeds backwards through the tubes in those cells and plant.
00:03:41.438 --> 00:03:45.099
That is still the most common and traditional theory.
00:03:45.289 --> 00:04:11.733
But there's a lot of problems with the theory, like endo has been found before the very first period, after the last period, outside the pelvis, lungs, brain, back of the eye in men, places where backflow cannot reach, and it leads to a lot of endo myths, things that aren't true, like if you take out the uterus, you're going to take out the source of endo, based upon the backflow theory, so that you cannot have endo without a uterus.
00:04:12.915 --> 00:04:21.331
That is a hundred percent not true, especially if you've left the ovaries, which can stimulate the endo again, which is, by definition outside the uterus, you've done nothing to the endo.
00:04:21.331 --> 00:04:33.822
If you just remove the uterus or they're going to say, well, if you can stop the periods, that's going to turn off the tap, stop the, and so you can't have endo after having no periods for a long time Also, 100% not true.
00:04:33.822 --> 00:04:42.355
People have
said that the number one thing we can do to really help women with endo is to get rid of the bad theory because it leads to endomus.
00:04:42.355 --> 00:04:46.187
So modern day theories include stem cells metaplasia.
00:04:46.187 --> 00:04:52.654
The cells just change and that may be at a particular window in a woman's development, so it doesn't keep happening.
00:04:52.654 --> 00:04:55.260
It's not an ongoing process, which?
00:04:55.260 --> 00:05:01.302
So then, if you can cut out the endo and do that well, you can have great outcomes, which is what we're showing.
00:05:01.710 --> 00:05:16.494
Yeah, I got you and so, and like everything in science and medicine, it's always way more complicated than you think, and so that's fascinating to hear kind of the competing theories right, and hopefully in time we learn more and more about it.
00:05:16.494 --> 00:05:45.356
And so what you do which is very unique and there's only a few doctors like you in the country, is my understanding you go in with your CO2 laser and remove these pockets of ectopic endometrium that are in the pelvis, that are causing pain or changing the anatomy of the uterus and the fallopian tubes and the ovaries, causing infertility, and sometimes these are really tedious, meticulous surgeries that last a long time, right?
00:05:45.376 --> 00:05:47.221
So this disease starts off on the surface.
00:05:47.221 --> 00:05:51.750
As the disease progresses it can go deeper.
00:05:51.750 --> 00:05:55.821
You can get a ball of it in the ovary, called a chocolate cyst or endometrioma.
00:05:55.821 --> 00:05:59.918
You can get a ball of it in the bowel or the bowel wall, called the bowel nodule.
00:05:59.918 --> 00:06:00.981
That can make things stick.
00:06:00.981 --> 00:06:03.775
In fact the disease can make all the anatomy stick.
00:06:03.775 --> 00:06:10.822
So in advanced cases you can get what's called a frozen pelvis, where uterus, bowel tubes and ovaries are all stuck together.
00:06:12.289 --> 00:06:18.441
So I like to start by saying there's a TED talk called the most common disease you've never heard of.
00:06:18.441 --> 00:06:19.783
I love that title.
00:06:19.783 --> 00:06:20.225
That's endo.
00:06:20.409 --> 00:06:27.582
Everybody knows somebody with endo and the common phrase out there or thinking is you know, it's one in ten, hashtag it.
00:06:27.582 --> 00:06:31.572
That's the rate of endo, but it's much more than that.
00:06:31.572 --> 00:06:37.203
Okay, the two main things that endo is associated with or causes is pain and infertility.
00:06:37.203 --> 00:06:40.697
So if you have infertility, no pain, it's at least 50%.
00:06:40.697 --> 00:06:49.345
Pain that does not feel better with hormonal suppression or birth control pills over 80% Pain and infertility it's over 90%.
00:06:49.345 --> 00:06:50.749
So it's so common.
00:06:50.749 --> 00:06:52.032
Everybody knows somebody with endo.
00:06:52.032 --> 00:07:11.744
The usual treatments the status quo I like to call it is band-aid therapy for pain, hormonal suppression of some kind, whether it be chemical pregnancy with birth control pills or chemical menopause or all the newer medications for pain bypass therapy for fertility.
00:07:11.744 --> 00:07:15.297
I call it like IVF bypass the problem, you know.
00:07:15.297 --> 00:07:20.255
Make a baby in a test tube or this idea that you're going to have to have surgery every couple of years for the rest of your life.
00:07:20.255 --> 00:07:25.014
That status quo, that usual treatment, is not satisfactory to most women.
00:07:25.956 --> 00:07:29.903
At Restore Center for Endo our approach is to remove the actual disease.
00:07:29.903 --> 00:07:32.234
We call that root cause treatment.
00:07:32.234 --> 00:07:47.773
Remove the disease to avoid the need for long-term suppression, basically because it's gone to lead to natural fertility and hopefully recurring natural fertility, and for the hope of one and done surgery, which no one thinks is possible but we're showing is possible.
00:07:47.773 --> 00:07:54.552
We just published our 10-year study from our experience at SLU, st Louis University, and our rate of repeat surgery was very low.
00:07:54.552 --> 00:08:09.937
It was under 5% in 10 years and even without most patients taking any long-term suppression post op, the usual rates of repeat surgery after the burning, which is what most people do, is 50, 60, 80%.
00:08:09.937 --> 00:08:11.351
That's great In two years.
00:08:11.351 --> 00:08:28.201
So again, we're showing a very low rate of repeat surgery and so we're saying one and done surgery is possible and we would say the way to get there, which should be the goal of all centers of endo, is to try to offer to patients one and done surgery.
00:08:29.023 --> 00:08:30.975
I think you know surgery surgeons have kind of given up.
00:08:30.975 --> 00:08:37.057
They're going to burn what they can, but if it's near a vital structure they're going to put them on long-term suppression, post-op.
00:08:37.057 --> 00:08:47.274
They don't have to remove it all, or for fertility, they don't have to optimize the anatomy because they're just going to bypass the pelvis and refer to IVF or just come back and do it again in two years.
00:08:47.274 --> 00:08:57.176
That's a very different surgical mindset versus trying to remove it all and optimize the anatomy now, and so I think that's a very different surgical mindset on behalf of the surgeon.
00:08:57.176 --> 00:09:02.277
But also we're showing, I think, a very different surgical result for the patient.
00:09:02.277 --> 00:09:06.053
And so we're trying to combine the best of cutting it all out.
00:09:06.053 --> 00:09:09.442
We call that optimal excision and adhesion prevention, so very few cut it all out.
00:09:09.442 --> 00:09:12.272
We call that optimal excision and adhesion prevention, so very few cut it all out.
00:09:12.272 --> 00:09:21.523
Well, but the other half is to prevent adhesions and that's how we would say you achieve
such great results or achieve the goal of one and done surgery.
00:09:22.492 --> 00:09:24.399
Yeah, and you use the CO2 laser to do that.
00:09:24.430 --> 00:09:30.903
So my cutting tool of choice, as you say yes, is this free beam, non-contact CO2 laser.
00:09:30.903 --> 00:09:33.579
So I don't have to touch the tissue to cut the tissue.
00:09:33.579 --> 00:09:34.835
It's very precise.
00:09:34.835 --> 00:09:36.858
It's literally cutting one layer at a time.
00:09:36.858 --> 00:09:42.699
You can see the layers separate and so there's not that kind of danger of pushing too far.
00:09:42.699 --> 00:09:44.315
People ask why I don't use the robot.
00:09:44.315 --> 00:09:45.720
I used to use the robot.
00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:50.481
I think well, the robot doesn't have this type of laser.
00:09:51.552 --> 00:09:53.790
Do you do your surgeries open or laparoscopic?
00:09:53.790 --> 00:09:55.416
So they're all laparoscopic, minimally invasive.
00:09:55.557 --> 00:09:57.154
Okay, less holes than a robot.
00:09:57.375 --> 00:09:57.576
Yeah.
00:09:58.151 --> 00:10:00.197
Less visible holes than the robot.
00:10:00.197 --> 00:10:06.537
The robot's only been shown to really, you know, not improve outcomes but only increase time and cost in benign surgery.
00:10:06.537 --> 00:10:13.079
So I don't use it for what I do, and especially surface endo or stage one to three.
00:10:13.079 --> 00:10:17.455
I wouldn't use it Now, stage four maybe.
00:10:17.455 --> 00:10:18.980
Why is that?
00:10:18.980 --> 00:10:27.197
Just because by then it's not really delicate surface endo, it's more just deep endo and maybe the robot would be fine for that.
00:10:28.412 --> 00:10:33.278
What are the side effects from the surgery or potential side effects from the surgery?
00:10:34.321 --> 00:10:48.951
So the main criticism of surgery or excision, cutting it out, is that you're going to create all these raw surfaces which will promote adhesions, so it's going to make things worse for fertility.
00:10:48.951 --> 00:10:49.835
That's a theory.
00:10:49.835 --> 00:10:54.432
That's a theory that has not been shown to be true.
00:10:54.432 --> 00:11:10.050
With our anatomy optimization and non-surgical optimizations for patients with fertility, when you treat the endo, they feel better and they have improved chances of fertility, and I think they actually go hand in hand.
00:11:10.050 --> 00:11:13.950
Feeling better and chances of pregnancy go hand in hand, yeah for sure.
00:11:13.950 --> 00:11:15.127
What are the rates of fertility?
00:11:15.127 --> 00:11:18.555
So the national average for IVF is 32%.
00:11:18.555 --> 00:11:31.701
When you're talking about root cause treatment and restorative reproductive medicine, or optimizing the anatomy and the non-surgical factors for fertility, the rates of pregnancy can be up to 70% in one to two years.
00:11:33.024 --> 00:11:34.306
Did you in the study?
00:11:34.306 --> 00:11:36.968
You guys did, did you guys measure that as an endpoint?
00:11:37.908 --> 00:11:39.951
fertility- In the 10-year study.
00:11:39.951 --> 00:11:43.913
Yeah Well, it was a database, and so we had different endpoints, gotcha.
00:11:43.913 --> 00:11:46.195
This one was focused on rates of repeat surgery.
00:11:46.375 --> 00:11:46.536
Yeah.
00:11:46.556 --> 00:11:54.362
There are other studies, yes, that show up to 70% fertility rates, even in advanced endo.
00:11:54.362 --> 00:12:02.997
Yeah, so it's very effective and, again, patients are feeling better and it can lead to recurring fertility and if it's one and done surgery, it's very cost effective.
00:12:03.177 --> 00:12:08.956
Yeah, for sure, yeah, and and yeah, and there's the and there's, it's a big picture.
00:12:08.956 --> 00:12:25.156
I mean, you're not only looking at fertility, you're not only looking at pain obviously significant psychological benefits if you're not in pain, if you're not having to, you know, continuing to have surgeries and so, you know, seems like a lot of positives on a lot of fronts.
00:12:25.485 --> 00:12:37.555
Yeah, the real reason why, you know, I began Restore Center of Endo was to enter the conversation among centers of endo to say that what we're doing is different and here's how you can try to get to one and done surgery.
00:12:37.555 --> 00:12:41.606
But really it's also to pay it forward and here's how you can try to get to one and done surgery, but really it's also to pay it forward.
00:12:41.606 --> 00:12:44.893
That is the real reason for Restore Center for Endo.
00:12:44.893 --> 00:12:48.059
So my wife had painful periods her whole life.
00:12:48.059 --> 00:12:51.508
We tried from day one to get pregnant.
00:12:51.508 --> 00:12:53.632
After a year of trying she said maybe I have endo.
00:12:53.632 --> 00:12:54.815
I said no way.
00:12:54.815 --> 00:12:56.177
She had bad endo.
00:12:56.177 --> 00:13:00.699
She had one surgery to remove the endo and then multiple surgeries for adhesions.
00:13:00.699 --> 00:13:04.394
She's now pain-free and we've had recurring fertility.
00:13:06.128 --> 00:13:09.086
I saw your five beautiful kids on your website Praise God.
00:13:09.086 --> 00:13:09.687
Yes, thank you.
00:13:10.690 --> 00:13:34.255
So you know, but going through the journey with her and again we're trying to pay that forward and in our story preventing adhesions was as important as removing all the disease but going through the the the journey with her, not knowing why somebody is not getting pregnant is as bad as not having a baby, or at least adds insult to injury.
00:13:34.255 --> 00:13:58.570
Yeah, to be told you have unexplained infertility, which you know again, mainstream would say 30 of infertility, which you know again, mainstream would say 30% of infertility is unexplained, is a slap in the face.
00:13:58.570 --> 00:14:14.921
A woman knows that her body is designed to get pregnant and if you look hard enough you will probably find an answer to why, or a factor that is, often multiple factors that are
leading the woman to not be able to get pregnant and many of those women have endo.
00:14:14.921 --> 00:14:20.427
So again, a normal ultrasound and a normal exam do not rule out surface endo.
00:14:21.516 --> 00:14:22.097
Yeah, I mean.
00:14:22.097 --> 00:14:46.147
So I look at a lot of scans and things like that and I would assume that a focus of endometriosis would have about the same Hounsfield units as fluid or anything else, and so it would be kind of hard to see on a scan, I would think Well, if it's advanced endo, again it's gone beyond the surface and it's now a ball of it in the ovary, that's stage three endo.
00:14:46.267 --> 00:14:47.256
that's an endometrioma.
00:14:47.256 --> 00:14:49.299
If it's in the bowel, that's stage four endo.
00:14:49.299 --> 00:14:53.626
You can see advanced endo when there's some thickness to it.
00:14:53.746 --> 00:14:56.951
And then it's deflecting other tissue and misshaping it.
00:14:57.395 --> 00:15:02.655
But if it's just surface endo, stage one to two, that's not going to be picked up on exam or imaging.
00:15:02.655 --> 00:15:08.040
But stage one to two endo or surface endo can still affect pain and fertility and treating it will help both.
00:15:08.040 --> 00:15:18.248
So, again, a lot of this unexplained infertility disappears when you actually look for and treat underlying conditions or root cause treatment.
00:15:18.248 --> 00:15:32.111
And again, having an answer, having that disease removed from your body, is so important in the healing process of a woman who's not getting pregnant.
00:15:32.771 --> 00:15:47.799
Yeah, and, like you said, like a lot of diseases, it has a ripple effect not only in the individual's life but also you know their spouse and you know whatever it is, whether it's cancer, endometriosis or whatever and so well, that's great.
00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:48.119
This is.
00:15:48.119 --> 00:15:52.545
It sounds like kind of an avant-garde, you know, this is it sounds like kind of an avant garde.
00:15:52.545 --> 00:16:11.097
You know advanced technique and practice that you have here and sometimes with that comes, you know, if you're kind of pushing the status quo.
00:16:11.117 --> 00:16:12.318
Sometimes you can get a little bit of headwinds.
00:16:12.318 --> 00:16:15.601
Yes, is that the case with your practice, or not so much.
00:16:16.682 --> 00:16:24.489
Well, I would say it's really a return to trying to focus on treating the patient.
00:16:24.489 --> 00:16:27.752
Yeah, again, this is not to bash on IVF.
00:16:27.752 --> 00:16:32.454
It has its role, but I would say it this way.
00:16:32.454 --> 00:16:39.009
Okay, the director of an IVF center asked me who is the most important person in the IVF center.
00:16:39.009 --> 00:16:40.579
Okay, you get to guess.
00:16:41.763 --> 00:16:48.524
Well, I mean, you know we're supposed to be patient first oriented, so you could say the patient Okay common answer, great answer.
00:16:48.985 --> 00:16:52.802
Well, first off to say it's not the director of the clinic.
00:16:52.802 --> 00:16:55.748
Okay, it's not the person who got into med school.
00:16:55.748 --> 00:16:57.816
We love our administrators, but that's right.
00:16:57.816 --> 00:16:59.778
Completed med school.
00:16:59.778 --> 00:17:05.740
Did residency training, subspecialty fellowship training to become an REI reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist.
00:17:05.740 --> 00:17:07.102
Which is a difficult field to get into.
00:17:07.142 --> 00:17:10.664
Right and now owns and runs the IVF center.
00:17:10.664 --> 00:17:15.027
It's not that person and it's not even the patient she posed the question.
00:17:15.027 --> 00:17:15.948
She gave the answer.
00:17:15.948 --> 00:17:19.410
Which is the most important person is the embryologist.
00:17:19.410 --> 00:17:23.813
It's the person that runs the lab, because that's where the action is.
00:17:24.174 --> 00:17:24.455
Okay.
00:17:25.356 --> 00:17:32.970
So just to say the woman is not being treated to help produce the baby.
00:17:32.970 --> 00:17:35.758
So women?
00:17:35.758 --> 00:17:44.102
This to me was just mind blowing, or at least highlighted the point that you know, women want to be treated as patients.
00:17:44.102 --> 00:17:49.541
Women want to be healed to have the baby, and that's as important as having the baby.
00:17:49.541 --> 00:17:50.825
They want to be restored.
00:17:50.825 --> 00:17:56.042
So this title Restore Center for Endo is my wife.
00:17:56.102 --> 00:17:56.722
Great title.
00:17:57.084 --> 00:18:08.039
But again, having lived through it, there's a real desire there by women to get answers to be restored as much as having the baby, or at least that's a very important part of the healing process.
00:18:08.039 --> 00:18:09.879
Yeah, okay, is this?
00:18:09.879 --> 00:18:16.683
So this issue is, I would say, an issue for our time.
00:18:16.683 --> 00:18:41.931
I really think this idea of restorative reproductive medicine as an alternative or as a way to try to get pregnant without bypassing the problem and really offering root cause treatment is really an issue that is a great moment in our society and that cuts across the political spectrum.
00:18:41.931 --> 00:19:24.061
People come at it from both sides, but people are wanting root cause treatment kind of to be more organic or natural, to lead to natural fertility for a patient, without big pharma, without just suppressive Band-Aid treatments or treatments that end up with a lot of hormones in the environment but that flood your body in a very artificial way, or bypass therapy with big fertility, we'll call it, and so I think it's really there's a lot of grassroots movement or desire for options for fertility that are not just the usual.
00:19:24.562 --> 00:19:34.562
Yeah, yeah and it and if it seems like if you have, you know, very significant endometriosis, it's, it's something that would probably give people hope.
00:19:34.562 --> 00:19:52.222
And I'm sure it's a gratifying field
to be in, you know, to see patients who may have kind of given up on things or maybe didn't want to take you know a certain route, and they come into your clinic and you get to see, you know them and their spouse and how it changes.
00:19:52.222 --> 00:19:54.051
I mean, is that right?
00:19:54.051 --> 00:19:54.953
Can you talk about?
00:19:54.974 --> 00:19:56.478
that, yeah, I love what I do.
00:19:56.478 --> 00:20:01.755
Again, I'm a slow learner and I went through all that, but I love what I do every day and I steal my wife's phrase all the time.
00:20:01.755 --> 00:20:14.361
But to help a woman get her life back, get answers or be a part of having a baby, I mean it has eternal value.
00:20:14.361 --> 00:20:15.984
I love it.
00:20:16.585 --> 00:20:18.589
Yeah's great, that's great.
00:20:18.589 --> 00:20:29.149
Well, um, how can patients if they were interested in just kind of taking that first step and um kind of looking into this?
00:20:29.149 --> 00:20:31.538
You have a website, is that right?
00:20:31.858 --> 00:20:36.244
yes, so it's called restore center for Endometriosis is the name of the practice.
00:20:36.244 --> 00:20:42.151
The website is restore-endocom or restoreendocom.
00:20:42.151 --> 00:20:46.418
There's a lot of information on there, but you know.
00:20:46.418 --> 00:20:48.305
So we're here in St Louis, we're based here.
00:20:48.305 --> 00:21:01.602
There are very few centers in the country that are really focused on this type of root cause treatment and can do this type of surgery to restore the anatomy, especially for advanced endo.
00:21:01.602 --> 00:21:04.156
We're going to often take a team like we have here.
00:21:04.156 --> 00:21:11.037
You know, some places really do believe in cutting out the endo but don't have a good bowel surgeon to work with.
00:21:11.037 --> 00:21:13.561
I feel so blessed to be able to work with Dr Summers.
00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:29.639
We've been together now for 10 years and um yeah you know, you guys have a reputation for being meticulous and and doing what it takes to get the job done, because these are not easy surgeries.
00:21:29.639 --> 00:21:42.747
I mean, for people who don't know, doing surgery in the pelvis is kind of like doing surgery in an upside down traffic cone, Like the deeper you get, the more narrow it is, and so this is a highly specialized treatment.
00:21:42.747 --> 00:22:07.544
And that's one of the great things about health care in St Louis is you have these kind of super specialists that are available and you know all the systems have, you know, really great doctors, and so I always say with St Luke's we have incredible competition, you know, because there's really good hospitals all around, but we're fortunate to have you know something like this, and I know a lot of your patients fly in from other places to get their treatment.
00:22:07.625 --> 00:22:08.167
Yeah, thank you.
00:22:08.167 --> 00:22:15.847
Now we actually see more patients out of state than in state and very few places can do this Well, people come from all over.
00:22:15.847 --> 00:22:22.524
It's very humbling, but I hesitated there because I was going to say so.
00:22:22.524 --> 00:22:31.926
I learned I hope it's okay to say Don, but Dr Summers, when he graduated residence day, I think it was you know they roast you, yeah, sure.
00:22:31.926 --> 00:22:40.717
So when he graduated he got the OCD award, which, when you're dealing with endo, is exactly the guy you want.
00:22:40.938 --> 00:22:48.160
He is meticulous and for these advanced endo cases that can involve the bowel, where things can be stuck, might include a bowel resection.
00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:49.643
We allow all day.
00:22:49.643 --> 00:23:22.035
We do one case all day, yeah, so we're not rushed, we can do what needs to be done and St Luke's has been so supportive no-transcript.
00:23:22.416 --> 00:23:24.263
If you're doing whatever it takes to get the job done.
00:23:24.263 --> 00:23:29.355
It could be a 10 hour surgery if necessary, and and, and and you know the.
00:23:29.355 --> 00:23:43.134
The truth of it is that's a stress on the staff and it's a stress on the system, and um, and so it's it makes a big difference to have that support Right.
00:23:49.394 --> 00:24:20.276
No, and St Luke's, you know they I think at first they weren't sure to be fair, but they've seen over the years the outcomes for the patient first and foremost, and that you know the patients do well and it's, you know it's really helping people, and so they, they've seen that I would call our practice a mission-based practice and I really think, you know St Luke's is on mission together with us and, first and foremost, patients are benefiting and again, their support has been wonderful.
00:24:20.998 --> 00:24:35.039
Well, patrick, we're fortunate to have you and Dr Donald Summers on staff here and or your practice here, and I want to thank you for the not only the work you do, but I want to thank you for being here at St Luke's.
00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:38.065
We appreciate you and the website's.
00:24:38.065 --> 00:24:46.243
Restoreendocom and check it out and reach out to Dr Yeung and his staff if you think he may be able to help you.
00:24:46.584 --> 00:24:47.166
Thanks so much.
00:24:47.166 --> 00:24:48.792
Thanks, patrick, thank you.