State-of-theart treatment

Urologist Dr. Dinesh Rao uses robotic surgery and the latest techniques to treat men and women.

Over the course of 15 years of practicing at Advanced Urology Institute, Dr. Dinesh Rao has firmly established himself in the medical community in the tri-county area of Sumter, Lake, and Marion.

The highly educated doctor offers full-service urology care and the most advanced surgical techniques available as one of nine urologists on staff at Advanced Urology Insti- tute in Oxford, on the western edge of The Villages.

Dr. Rao focuses on state-of-the-art robotic surgery and solving issues with erectile dysfunction, or ED, incontinence, and kidney stones.

“We offer the latest minimally invasive techniques for prostate and kidney surgery,” he says. “The robotic surgery is laparoscopic—minimally invasive—so it has less pain, less healing time, and shorter hospital stays, usually overnight stays for those types of surgery.”

For incontinence, Dr. Rao offers minimally invasive sling surgery and injection therapies, including Botox, which is injected into the bladder.

“Botox works on the skin because it relaxes those muscles and gets rid of those wrinkles,” Dr. Rao says. “We inject Botox in the bladder muscle and it relaxes it so that people don’t have that frequency and urgency (to urinate). Same drug in a different spot.”

For ED, Dr. Rao uses the full range of current medications and surgical options, such as implants, though medications are much more common.

“It’s interesting how many men are interested in treating their ED until they get to the surgical part, and then they back off and say, ‘Well, I was interested but maybe not quite that much,” the doctor jokes.

Dr. Rao also treats kidney stones with every current treatment, such as lithotripsy and other minimally invasive stone management techniques. Lithotripsy is a procedure that uses ultrasound shock waves to break up kidney stones so they can pass through the body.

Both men and women share similar ailments such as incontinence and bladder problems, kidney stones and kidney cancer, Dr. Rao says. But urologists naturally treat more men than women because men also seek care for ED and prostate cancer, while women generally go to gynecologists for many women’s health issues.

Dr. Rao started on his path toward the medical field while growing up in North Carolina, where he attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a public school in Durham. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and then returned to North Carolina for medical school and urology training. He earned his medical degree at Duke University, then completed his residency at Duke University Medical Center.

“I’ve trained at one of the best urology programs in the country,” he says.

In 2003, Dr. Rao moved to Ocala and has been practicing at Advanced Urology Institute ever since, splitting his time between the Ocala and Oxford offices.

He does manage to find time for one of his passions, racing Spec Miata cars in amateur races of the Sports Car Club of America. He has driven the Mazda-made vehicles in events at Sebring,

Daytona, Atlanta, and elsewhere. He’s also a pilot and hopes to buy his own plane so he can devote more time to that passion as well.

Life on the job will get a little easier for doctors and patients when the Advanced Urology Institute completes construction of a new surgery center directly across from its offices on County Road 103. The center will allow most surgical procedures to be done onsite, making arrangements much more convenient for patients. Dr. Rao estimates that the building will be finished in six to 12 months.

In the meantime, Dr. Rao continues to accept new patients, and appointments usually are available promptly. He emphasizes that the patients come first at his practice.

“I try to offer the best available up-to-date care,” Dr. Rao says. “I offer high-quality care at a reasonable cost, and I don’t try to drive up costs or do unnecessary testing. I try to promote the best practices.”