PVP Workshop in Mumbai, India

Today I have participated in a workshop on Greenlight PVP (Photoselective Vaporization of the Prostate) for benign prostatic hyperplasia in Mumbai, India. I was invited by the prestigious Hospital Aly Khan, the hospital has purchased a KTP Greenlight Laser to be able to offer this technique to their patients. Mi role was to present the technique to a numerous group of local urologists and to contribute to the training of the urologists at this hospital.

The workshop commenced with a presentation on the technique in front of 70 attendees, followed by a vivid discussion with the audience and with the participation of various very prestigious Indian urologists.

In India there are approximately 1200 urologists, that cover a population of 1000.000.000 people. In Spain there are 2000 urologists to cover 46.000.000. One of the urologists who I will train tomorrow told me he had done over 15.000 TURPs (transurethral resection of the prostate (!!!!).

Mumbai is well known within India for its rapid adoption of new technologies, but this time Delhi pioneered in the adoption of this technique.

After the end of the session, I was given a commemorative gift. Then we went to the Surgical theatre and I have performed two PVPs with a live link to the meeting room, and the audience did not stop asking questions during both operations. The first patient had a 50 gram prostate, the second one had a bigger one, approximately 80-90 g. Both operations were uneventful. I am sure tomorrow both patients will be happy, without a catheter.

All the attendees agreed that the technique is a leap forward in BPH surgery, there was no blood loss at all during surgery and the endoscopic result was very convincing. The main problem for the generalised adoption of this technique in India is that the cost of a TURP for the patient is roughly 800 USD. The cost of one laser fibre is higher than that, so it is a relatively more expensive technique. All these patients could not afford the operation and have been operated free of any cost.