Saturday, July 25, 2009

Trip to Bogotá, Colombia

From Panamá I flew to Bogotá, Colombia.

I first went to Clinica Colombia, a wonderful hospital belonging to Sanitas Interational, a very powerful organisation in Colombia.


There I performed three operations with Dr. Carlos Larios and the Hospital's urology team. All cases went fine and I was told that patients fared very well and left the hospital the following morning. The hospital wants to incorporate cutting edge technology and so they are very interested in this laser.


Later that night I did two presentations to other urologists from Bogotá interested in the laser treatment of BPH at the Hotel La Fontana. As we were a relatively small group we could comment all the aspects of the minimally invasive treatment of BPH in depth.

Then I went to Hospital Simón Bolivar, where I performed two operations with Dr. Alejandro Tarazona. Both cases were very demostrative and I could tell they were really interested in adopting the technology, which is unstoppable all over the world.


A fast trip to Bogotá, I did not have time enough to visit the city. I could not follow the recommendation of my colleague in Madrid. Dr. David Rendón, to go to the restaurant Andrés Carne de Res...but I could see that Bogotá is a very nice and quiet city, and I really look forward to coming back to this wonderful country to visit it in depth.

Trip to Panamá

I spent the last week travelling. I first went to Panamá, to perform live surgeries and to deliver presentations in two hospitals.

The first was Hospital Punta Pacífica, a wonderful hospital where a surgical session had been organised, the operations were retransmited to a room where many urologists attended.

I did three operations and between surgeries I did two talks, one on the Greenlight HPS laser,

and another one comparing different types of lasers for BPH.

The session was a success, but we finished quite late, as the second and third prostates were both very big. Operating big prostates takes longer. All patients did well postoperatively.

I also visited the Complejo Metropolitano de la Caja del Seguro Social, where unfortunately we could not operate due to technical problems, but where I had a chance to deliver two talks and project a video on surgical technique.


I was also interviewed for TV, I hope it becomes available on the internet soon, so I can add it here.

During this trip I was lucky enough to visit the Panamá Channel, a wonderful construction from 1914, constantly crossed by enormous cargo ships that avoid having to go all Around south America. The ships pay 300.000 USD each time they cross it, a very important source of income for the country. They are building a wider channel, to allow for building wider ships, as nowadays the cargo ships are tailored to the width of the channel, for obvious reasons.


All the urologists I met during this part of my trip were really nice and warm, and I had a great time. It was very hot and humid, but I really enjoyed getting to know the Panamá channel!!!