European Association of Urology Congress in Barcelona

This time The Congress of the European Association of Urology took place close from home, in Barcelona. The weather was really nice with sunny days that our colleagues from northern Europe appreciated a lot.

First I participated in the joint session EAU-CAU (American Confederation of Urology), where I was invited to give a lecture on "Prostate Enucleation, Holmium or GreenLight laser".  I commented on my experience with both techniques and explained my personal evolution. It started with vaporization and moved on to the description of the surgical technique for anatomic vaporization. How then I described a new technique for Green laser enucleation and finally leading to the recent publication of the en bloc enucleation with the early apical release with the holmium laser.

The following day I moderated a section of the live surgery transmissions organised by the ESUT (European Society of Uro-Technology), where several surgical techniques were presented and retransmitted live from Fundació Puigvert in Barcelona.

The auditorium was impressive, with such a big screen. It was a great pleasure to see Dr. Rijo from Barcelona present his video on my technique of Green laser endoscopic enucleation of the prostate.

The following day, in another ESUT session, I presented this technique step by step with other international experts that spoke about other endoscopic enucleation techniques.

I also did two informal presentations during the congress at the Lumenis stand in the commercial exhibition area, on the role and advantages of En-bloc enucleation and the new MOSES technology.

Finally, I moderated a session in my last congress day where videos were presented on the advances of surgical techniques for the treatment of BPH and new prostate biopsy techniques for the advanced diagnosis of prostate cancer.

In sum, a very interesting congress, full of new innovative concepts in all areas of urology.

Publication of our new technique for en-bloc Holmium enucleation of the prostate

Recently we published our technique for En bloc enucleation of the prostate with Holmium laser in the World Journal of Urology.

The paper describes the surgical technique and the results obtained in the first 137 patients treated from January 2015 to March 2017.

This technique is a variation of the original one described by Peter Gilling to perform HoLEP (Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate) that provides higher speed, safety, and better results, diminishing the risk for temporary urinary incontinence postoperatively.

Visitors from Switzerland

Today we received the visit of Prof. Tullio Sulser, head of the department of Urology of the University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland. Prof. Sulser is an old friend who has shared with me the interest for lasers for many years. He came accompanied by Dr. Etienne Keller, from his department.

He shared the morning with us at the operating theater at Clinica CEMTRO in Madrid, where we performed 5 en-bloc enucleations with Holmium laser during the morning..

En bloc HoLEP is a very fast and safe procedure for the definitive treatment of BPH. It was a pleasure to share time with Prof. Sulser.

Lumenis Academy course in Piaseczno, Warsaw, Poland

This time I flew to Warsaw, to participate in a course of the Lumenis Academy, on Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate. My role was to give a couple of talks and to perform a live surgical procedure, to demonstrate En bloc HoLEP to the audience.

There were more than 50 urologists from various nationalities. It was a pleasure to meet there with some colleagues from the Hill Clinic in Bulgaria, Dr. Jordan Tomov and Dr. Goran Derimachkovski, as well as with Dr. Marek Zawadzki, from the EMC Sant Anny Hospital in Piasezcno, Poland, where I am going to operate lately.

A very well organised course and very interesting, with very prestigious invited professors, like Dr. Tev Aho, from Cambridge, UK, and Dr. Tobias Bothmann, from Berlin.