There is a health problem thousands of Long Island men live with quietly, planning their days around bathroom access and wearing pads they never mention. This week, the hospital in Bay Shore became a nationally recognized place to get it fixed.

A first for downstate New York

South Shore University Hospital announced that Dr. Roger Khouri has become the first physician in downstate New York to be recognized by Boston Scientific as a Center of Excellence for artificial urinary sphincter implantation, a procedure that treats urinary leakage in men. The device maker awards the designation to physicians who perform at least 20 of the procedures within a 12-month period, a volume only a small subset of urologists reaches because the operation requires meticulous work around the urethra.

The announcement came during September's Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and that timing is the point. The men most likely to need this procedure are prostate cancer survivors.

The problem nobody brings up at the barbecue

Surgery to remove the prostate saves lives, and for many men it leaves a lasting side effect: stress urinary incontinence, the kind of leakage that happens with a cough, a golf swing or a flight of stairs. For some it fades in the months after surgery. For others it persists, and men who beat cancer end up relying on pads or diapers, cutting back on the activities that filled their week.

The gap between how common this is and how rarely it gets discussed is exactly why the hospital is publicizing the recognition. Many men are simply unaware that an effective, durable fix exists, and the hospital hopes the designation encourages those living with leakage after prostate surgery to ask about it.

How the fix works

The artificial urinary sphincter, specifically the AMS 800 device, is an inflatable implant that has been in use for more than 50 years and remains the gold standard for moderate to severe male stress incontinence. The operation takes about 90 minutes and is done on an outpatient basis, meaning patients go home the same day. About six weeks later, the device is activated during an ordinary office visit.

The results are the reason urologists call the device the workhorse of male incontinence treatment. Once it is activated, many patients can expect to be about 90 percent drier, which in practical terms is the difference between managing a condition and getting a life back.

Why the designation matters to a patient

A device that has existed for five decades is only as good as the hands that place it, and this is a procedure where experience concentrates. The Center of Excellence bar of 20 implants in a year is a volume marker: it identifies surgeons who do this work routinely rather than occasionally. Until now, no physician from New York City through Long Island had earned it, which meant the region's highest-volume recognition for this specific operation lived elsewhere.

Now it lives in Bay Shore.

What this means for you

If you, your father or your neighbor has been living with leakage since prostate surgery, the takeaway is simple: it is common, it is treatable, and the region's first recognized specialist for the gold-standard fix operates out of South Shore University Hospital. The condition thrives on silence. The fix starts with one appointment and a question most men never think to ask.