Friday, July 25, 2008

Australia (IV)

Today we went to visit St. Vincents Hospital in Sydney, where I met Dr. Striker and Dr. Brenner. They had programmed two cases for today, one of the patients had a very big prostate and high surgical risk and the other patient had a smaller prostate...


Both operations were uneventful and again the experience was very interesting....


There are many centers worldwide starting to use this technology, and there is a great interest in learning all surgical tips and tricks and advanced strategies...

The following day I had to return to Madrid, and I took the chance to visit some beautiful spots in Sydney. Both the city and the inhabitants touch your heart.... I will be back down under!!!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Australia (III): Royal Prince Alfred Hospital

I was honoured today to visit the Urology Department at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, where I met Drs. Boulas, Wong, Eisinger, Visilaris and Sved.


They had recently bought a new Greenlight HPS laser and wanted to obtain the best possible results with it. We did four operations throughout the day, and all cases were successful... all of them had a good chance to sit down to operate under my supervision and they did a jolly good job!!!. I told them all my tips and tricks and strategies to avoid getting in trouble and obtain the best possible results...


Then they invited us to go to a wonderful chinese restaurant in the Fish Market in Sydney, where Dr. Wong chose a fantastic menu for all of us... I tried the raw lobster for the first time... a noteworthy experience... We had a great time and I was really pleased to be surrounded by these great urologists and amazing human beings...

Australia (II): Opinion Leader Meeting

The 24th we did not operate, but we spent the whole day meeting with two opinion leaders from Hong-Kong and Taiwan, to assist them to launch an initiative similar to the IGLU (International Greenlight Users) in this part of the word. Dr. Henry Woo and me are part of this IGLU group, and we were discussing how to export this idea to Australasia...


As always, we learnt a great deal with these sessions where we reviewed all aspects related with prostatic laser surgery.

We ended up the day celebrating in a wonderful restaurant in Sydney...

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Australia (I): Greenlight Laser Prostatectomy Workshop

This has been my longest trip to date....The Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand invited me to participate in a workshop on Greenlight laser prostatectomy. The surgeons involved were Dr. Henry Woo, from Sydney Adventist Hospital and me.

When I arrived at the hotel, after a 30 hour trip, I was lucky to have a room with a privileged view over the famous Sydney harbour...

I took it easy and reseted in the hotel, and later that day we went out for dinner, and then the course started at the Sydney Adventist Hospital.


The programme was very dinamic and included short 15 minute talks and live transmission of surgical procedures. We had attendees from Australia, but also from Corea, China and Taiwan..

El Dr. woo, explicando el instrumental quirúrgico al público asistente en la sala...

My task was to operate a patient with a small, straight forward prostate, and give two short talks, and the second day I operated a patient with a big prostate and delivered two more speeches.... the course was a success and the attendees were very happy. We all learned a lot during these two days of hard work.

Dr. Woo observes one of my operations...

The attendees had a chance to try the Greenlight HPS laser in an experimental model

Friday, July 11, 2008

Gran Canaria: Dr. Juarez's Thesis

This time I travelled to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to attend to my good friend Dr. Juarez's doctoral dissertation. The act was celebrated at the Medical College building in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

He defended vaso-vasostomy with TESE Sperm Retrieval as the first line treatment for men who had a vasectomy and want to have children. He did it passionately and successfully, as he recieved the best possible qualification "sobresaliente Cum Laude"!!!



It was a great honour to be there to see a friend shine as a star, presenting the results of the work of four long years. I felt very proud of him and of being his friend.



The following monday we operated together and I returned to Madrid on Tuesday.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

TVE - invitation to Spanish TV program "Saver vivir"

Today I have been invited to participate in the TV program "Saber Vivir". The show today covered bladder problems and how to prevent them during the summer time.


The video can be seen here: http://www.sabervivir.es/contenido.php?modulo=Videos&idvideo=108. It is always interesting to participate in this kind of TV show, where they educate people on health related problems. It is also interesting to see how a TV show is performed and how many people are involved! The success of the show's director, Manuel Torreiglesias, is surely based on a great team.