USA Health has added Dr. Troy M. Sofinowski, a fellowship-trained endourologist, expanding access to advanced treatment for kidney stone disease and benign prostatic hyperplasia.
What an Endourologist Does
Endourology is a urology subspecialty built around minimally invasive techniques — procedures performed through natural openings or very small incisions rather than open surgery.
For patients, the practical difference is recovery. Procedures that once required an abdominal incision and a hospital stay are increasingly done endoscopically, with shorter recovery and less risk.
Sofinowski specializes in minimally invasive surgical procedures including laser enucleation of the prostate, known as HoLEP and ThuLEP.
Those techniques use a laser to remove obstructing prostate tissue from the inside. For men with significantly enlarged prostates, they offer an alternative to more invasive surgery, and they are not available everywhere — they require both specialized equipment and a surgeon trained specifically in the technique.
As an endourologist, he is also an expert in treating complex kidney stones.
Background
Sofinowski spent more than a decade practicing urology in community and rural settings before joining USA Health — experience that tends to produce surgeons comfortable with a broad range of presentations rather than a narrow referral population.
He earned his medical degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Medicine, and completed his general surgery internship and urology residency at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
A Research Background
Before medicine, Sofinowski held bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry and in physiology/neurobiology from the University of Maryland College Park.
As an undergraduate he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Research Fellow studying the biophysics of protein folding. He later served as a National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Training Fellow in the Laboratory of Molecular Gerontology at the National Institute on Aging, where he investigated DNA repair mechanisms.
Both fellowships are competitive research appointments, and the subject matter — protein folding and DNA repair — sits well upstream of clinical urology.
Where He Practices
Sofinowski sees patients at:
- USA Health University Urology
- USA Health Providence Hospital
- The USA Mapp Family Campus
Why This Matters Locally
Kidney stones and benign prostatic hyperplasia are both common conditions, and both are frequently managed with treatments that are adequate rather than optimal when a subspecialist is not available nearby.
Adding a fellowship-trained endourologist means patients in the region who would previously have traveled for HoLEP or complex stone management have a local option.