UH Clinical Update - March 2017
Westside patients with urological conditions have access to one of the most experienced and well-reviewed experts in the University Hospitals system in urologist Edward Cherullo, MD. After many years practicing on the Eastside, Dr. Cherullo now sees patients and performs surgery at UH St. John Medical Center five days a week.
“I’m open to see all urology patients,” he says.
Now in his 13th year at UH, Dr. Cherullo recently served as Interim Director of the UH Urological Institute. In 2016, he was one of the top five UH physicians on Press Ganey metrics – including the only UHMG physician and the only surgeon. Dr. Cherullo is also a prolific author, having published more than 70 articles on urology.
A Chicago native, Dr. Cherullo graduated magna cum laude from DePaul University and cum laude with distinction in research from St. Louis University School of Medicine. He completed his internship in general surgery and residency in urology at Cleveland Clinic, in addition to a research fellowship in advanced laparoscopic urologic surgery.
Although he is available to see patients with all urological conditions, Dr. Cherullo says he has a special interest in men’s health and urologic oncology. For men with erectile dysfunction, in particular, he’s enthusiastic about the low-cost generic alternatives to Viagra that are now available through some mail-order pharmacies.
“There’s been a lot of data on generic alternative medications for erectile dysfunction within the last nine months,” he says.
“They’re fabulous. They’re in the United States, they’re FDA-approved and they’re governed by oversight for quality. They’re a financially appropriate option for people who are farming their drugs out to Canada or India and don’t know the quality of the agent that they’re getting. If you use a mail-order pharmacy, you can pay almost an order of magnitude less.”
Dr. Cherullo also has one of the region’s largest bases of experience with photoselective vaporization of the prostate (PVP, or GreenLight laser), useful in treating BPH.
“That’s a tool that uses laser energy to remove prostate tissue, as opposed to the traditional method that uses resection,” he says. “It causes less blood loss and fewer symptoms when the man urinates during the recovery period.”
In terms of urologic oncology, Dr. Cherullo provides the full complement of services for kidney, bladder and prostate cancer.
“For kidney cancer, that includes cryotherapy, partial nephrectomy, robotic partial nephrectomy and removal of the whole kidney laparoscopically,” he says. “For prostate, that includes active surveillance, robot prostatectomy, brachytherapy and external beam radiotherapy.”