A comprehensive outpatient Kidney Stone Center, which will offer patients new minimally invasive techniques and a holistic approach to prevention, will be the first of its kind in New York City when it opens this fall in two Manhattan locations.
The Center will be headed by Mantu Gupta, MD, who was recently named Director of Endourology and Stone Disease for the Mount Sinai Health System, Chair of Urology at Mount Sinai Roosevelt and Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, and Professor of Urology.
The Center will focus on prevention, education, and continuous care, and patients will be treated by a multidisciplinary team comprised of an endocrinologist, a nephrologist, and a nutritionist. Treatment will include alternative medicine techniques, such as the use of herbs and acupuncture.
The Center is expected to treat more than 100 kidney stone patients a week. The two facilities will have the capability to perform x-rays, ultrasounds, and minimally invasive procedures—many of which were discovered by Dr. Gupta, a world-renowned clinician and researcher with a specialty in urinary stone disease, ureteropelvic junction obstruction, urinary tract obstruction, and upper tract urothelial malignancies.
Kidney stone occurrence is on the rise today, along with the increase in obesity and diabetes. Men suffer from the condition at a higher rate than women, but women are catching up: The long-standing male-to-female ratio of incidence was 2:1. Today, it stands at 3:2, says Dr. Gupta.
According to Dr. Gupta, few physicians offer postoperative care to kidney stone patients, and, as a result, patients often return a year or two later with another kidney stone. “However, if we treat kidney stone cases comprehensively with a team of experts in minimally invasive procedures, and educate patients about follow-up care and alternative approaches, we will provide our patients with a more holistic approach to maintaining their health,” says Dr. Gupta.
Before joining Mount Sinai in May, Dr. Gupta had served for nearly two decades as Associate Professor, Director of Endourology, and Director of the Kidney Stone Center at Columbia University Medical Center. “One reason I decided to join Mount Sinai to serve as a Chair and head the kidney stone disease program is to help bring this holistic, continuous-care concept to fruition,” says Dr. Gupta.
Over time, Dr. Gupta’s goal is to have the Center become the largest such program in the Northeast, and to gather clinical data that would considerably advance research into new kidney stone management strategies.
The Kidney Stone Center will treat patients at 625 Madison Avenue, within the Mount Sinai Department of Urology, and at 425 West 59th Street, in Mount Sinai Roosevelt’s Brodsky building.