Men's Health: Surgery Techniques

April 27 -- In case you're among the one in four men who will go under the knife this year, read this to make sure the doctor actually needs to use one.

The Problem: You Have a Cancerous Tumor in Your Prostate

Old surgery: Open prostatectomy.

New surgery: Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.

Surgical removal of the prostate is no longer the only option for men with localized prostate cancer. Surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic have begun performing a laparo-scopic procedure that uses just five tiny holes to remove the cancerous gland.

The surgeon inserts a small lighted camera and miniature cutting tools, then cuts the prostate and draws it out.

The new procedure leaves tiny scars, means just one day of chipped beef from the hospital canteen, and keeps you away from the gym for only two weeks instead of the usual eight.

"Because it's only minimally invasive, this treatment may become the surgical procedure of choice for men with cancer confined to the prostate gland," says Dr. Craig D. Zippe, a urologic surgeon at the clinic.

Ask your doctor if you're a candidate for the procedure, which costs about $17,500, compared with $19,000 for the old one, according to Zippe.

The Problem: Your Arthritic Knees are Completely Shot

Old surgery: Total knee replacement

New surgery: Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty

Fifteen years ago, steel knee-joint replacements gave new mobility to men who couldn't walk the dog without taking a palmful of pain medication.

But the 6-hour surgery created foot-long scars that would frighten Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, and left recipients with movements like her monster.

This new procedure replaces only the diseased bone (with steel) and damaged cartilage (with plastic). Once installed, these new parts move easily against one another, reducing pain and increasing range of motion.

And since only part of the joint is replaced, the incision is a mere 3 inches long, which cuts recovery time from four months to one.

"Men can even go back to biking and skiing — sports that were impossible after the older surgery," says Dr. Mitchell Sheinkop, an orthopedic surgeon at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, and the first surgeon to use the new procedure.