Saturday, December 22, 2007

Visitor from Iran

The 19th I met for the first time Dr. Dariush Marzbani, a prestigious urologist from Teheran, Iran. He came to madrid to visit us for some days decided to know the truth about the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia with the Greenlight HPS.

We shared two surgical sessions, the 20th I operated three patients, and the 21st, I also did three cases. The 21st we also received Dr. Gelabert, from Mallorca, to see the operations. Dr. Marzbani left very happy and convinced, because we saw very interesting a varied cases. Small prostates, big ones, and even a patient who already had had a TURP and an open prostatectomy...

The major problem for the introduction of this technique in Irán seems to be the blockade the USA maintains on Iran. Apparently american companies cannot sell in Iran, specially when high technology is involved.


Sunday, December 16, 2007

University Hospital Arnau de Villanova, Lleida

The night of the 16th I took the high speed train to Lleida. The following morning we woke up early to visit the University Hospital Arnau de Villanova to participate in a surgical session to demonstrate the new HPS laser in two patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Then I rushed back to Madrid in the High Speed Train (AVE). Christmas is near and I will have a chance to rest for a while.



Friday, December 14, 2007

BAU 2007 - National Urology Congress in Belgium

After my trip to the Canary Islands, I had to wake up very early to catch a flight to Brussels departing at 06:30. I had been invited to participate in the 7th Annual Congress of the Belgian Urological Association. I prepared a lecture on Greenlight Photoselective Vaporization for BPH.

The plane made us wait for three hours. This was compensated by the sight of an interesting fenomenon from the plane. A circular rainbow, that was resting on the clouds. A real beauty.

Then I drove to the congress center, where I did my lecture. Everything went fine. Some belgian urologists told me they would come soon to visit me in Madrid.

There I met my friend Jean de la Rosette, and we had lunch together. It is always a pleasure to learn from him. Then I returned to the airport, to go back to Madrid. I was really tired when I got home, but happy.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Surgeries in Gran Canaria

This thursday I took a plane to Gran Canaria, where we had programmed a joint surgical session with Dr. Juarez del Dago. I love coming to Gran Canaria, we always have a great time. The pity is that I flew in the morning flight and returned at night. We did two operations that were uneventful and satisfactory.


Then Dr. Juarez sent me this recently published news clip.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Conference in Doha, Quatar

This time I travelled to the middle east to participate in the PACS (Pan Arab Continence Society) conference in Doha, Quatar. Quatar is a relatively small country, but extremely wealthy, due to their abundance of the black gold. I arrived late at night after my trip and this is the first thing I saw from Doha as I woke up the next morning.


Then I went to the congress venue, where I dictated my conference. I lectured on greenlight laser prostatectomy for bening prostatic hyperplasia in a session covering all treatment options for this disease. Again, I met Dr. El-Hilali, from Canada there.


Then I had time enought to wonder around a beautiful market in the city, where I bought a shisha pipe, and different flavours of tobacco... there were also lots of spices... really beautiful.


Then I returned to Madrid, that same night. In principle, I prefer the trips where I do surgeries rather than lectures. It is much more interesting and fun. I received an invitation to visit Doha again in the near future to perform a mentoring session.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

New Delhi - Army Hospital (R&R)



I finally arrived at New Delhi at night. It was 02.00 am and as always, when I stepped out of the aeroplane I was hit by the special odour of India... a scent that brought back all my previous experiences in this wonderful country. There was a heavy fog, and the representatives of Hospimédica, the distributor of the GreenLight laser in India, came to pick me up and drove me to the hotel. I was half asleep when I reached there. The next morning I had to operate at the Army Hospital (Research and Referral), in the afternoon I had to lecture on BPH treatment with the Greenlight laser.


The hospital had an amazing intelligent operating room. The surgery went fine, it was transmitted to the conference room. The patient had a relatively small prostate and the operation only took 30 minutes. I greeted the patient and then I went down to the conference room where I found some old friends, as Dr. Wadhwa, Dr. Sood and Dr. Gupta.



Later on I dictated my conference and I attendend a banquet celebrating the congress, with an indian orchestra and all. I enjoyed Indian food and the company of the indian urologists and the Hospimedica personnel, and then I rushed to the airport, that was unbelievably filled up to its limit with people. It was an oddyssey to reach the plane.