Originally posted November 11, 2014

 

Today I went to the public university hospital Edgardo Rebagliati Martins in Lima, Perú, where we had a teaching program with lectures and four operations throughout the day.

The operations went very well and we could use the day to comment on all aspects of the treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia with the GreenLight laser.

Many residents and urology staff members as well as urologists from other hospitals in the country came by to watch the procedures and interact with us.

Dr. Elvis Sueldo joined me in the operating room and look after all the details to guarantee the success of the surgical session. We performed enucleation, anatomic vaporization and vapo-enucleation.

With the satisfaction of the work well done, I departed that same night to Montevideo, where I had to operate the following day, very happy to have had the chance to return to Perú after 4 years and see my friends there.

Originally posted November 10, 2014

After the surgeries at Hospital Almenara in the morning, I went to the headquarters of the Peruvian Urology Society where I gave a lecture on the role of the GreenLight laser in the treatment of Benign Prostate Hyperplasia.

Dr. Elvis Sueldo did the introduction of the session in front of the attendees.

At the end of the talk we had a nice question and answer session and then we enjoyed a typical menu. The food is so good in Perú!

Originally posted November 10, 2014

This time I went to Perú to initiate a trip throughout three South American countries. My first stop was Hospital Almenara, a public hospital that is considering incorporating the Green Laser to their therapeutic armamentarium.

The program included two operations and several talks. At the end both surgeries proved to be very complex and I did two enucleative procedures. Everything went well despite the difficulty of the clinical situation of the patients that they had prepared.

Everything went very well and we had a chance to comment all the aspects of the use of the green laser in the treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia with the staff of the urology department.

Originally posted November 5, 2014

Today I went to the Hospital Clínico in Madrid, where I spent my medical student years, invited by Dr. Moreno, the head of the department of urology, to demonstrate the Green Laser Enucleation technique.

First I gave a talk explaining the development of the technique during the morning clinical meeting, and then we all went to the operating room where I operated two patients, both of them with big prostate glands. During the operation we had a good chance to discuss all the technical details.

Everything went very well and I really enjoyed sharing with my colleagues and returning to the Hospital where I spent so many hours studying!

Originally posted November 2, 2014

This time I went to the Hill Clinic in Sofia, Bulgaria, for another surgical session. This time we received the visit of three international urologists, Dr. Destefanis, from Torino, Italy, Dr. Sommerhaber, from Austria and Dr. Luebcke, from Germany.

I operated 25 patients this month at hill clinic, and performed GreenLEP (Green Laser Enucleation of the Prostate) in all of them, and everything went very well. We are really mastering this technique now.

I am very happy because my Bulgarian colleagues told me that a patient in which we had tried to perform a green laser enucleation with intention to preserve ejaculation was actually able to ejaculate three months after the operation. This is a technical variant we are investigating that preserves ejaculatory function, a very difficult objective, but very desirable.

We are going to start a study to measure if it is possible to preserve ejaculation when we perform enucleation with the GreenLight laser. My impression is that it will be more difficult in patients with bigger glands, but we will see.

Also, Hill Clinic does a lot to promote the Movember movement, that raises funds for research in prostatic and testicular cancer. For this reason I was interviewed by Bulgarian TV.

Originally posted October 29, 2014

Today we received the visit to ICUA, at Clínica CEMTRO, of various Spanish urologists who came to witness some green light laser surgeries. We received the visit of Dr. Manuel Ruibal, from the Complejo Hospitalario of Pontevedra, Dr. Gómez Pascual, from Hospital Carlos Haya in Malaga, Dr. Miguel Suarez, from the Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias in Oviedo and Dr. Juliana Escobar from the Hospital del Tajo.

I could demonstrate the different technical variants, as anatomic vaporization, vapo-enucleation and the Green Laser Enucleation of the prostate.

The session went very well and as always it was a pleasure to share with my colleagues passionate for GreenLight laser surgery for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Originally posted October 24, 2014

This thursday I flew late at night to Bilbao, I slept there and went early in the morning to the Hospital de Cruces.

They had prepared two patients so I could operate them and show the GreenLEP technique. Unfortunately one of them was cancelled and I could only perform one of the operations. It was enough though to spark their interest in this wonderful technique. I then returned to Madrid to rest for the weekend.

Originally posted October 17, 2014

Again we received the visit of Dr. Richard Gastón, From Bordeaux, France. He comes to operate with us at ICUA in the Clínica CEMTRO every month. In this occasion we performed five operations in patients with cancer during two days, that went very well.

I am very happy as after seven years of collaboration with Dr. Gaston as an invited professor, briefly Dr. Gaston will become in full right a member of the staff at ICUA. So the collaboration with him will be intensified and he will come more often to Madrid to see patients in clinics and perform surgeries as a member of the team, and no longer as an invited surgeon.

In this occasion we had the pleasure to receive the visit of Dr. Georgi Georgiev, from the Hill Clinic of Sofia, Bulgaria, with which we have had a very special collaboration for the last five years. He helped us in the operations. In the photo he is in the center, with Dr. Gaston and Dr. Romero.

Originally posted October 14, 2014

This time I flew early from Madrid, to reach Glasgow in time to participate in the Session of Surgical Tips: Surgical Management of Symptomatic BPH in the Laser Era" chaired by Dr. Mostafá El-Hilali (Canada) and Dr. James Lingeman (USA).

My role in the session was to present the technique that I recently published of Green Laser Enucleation of the Prostate. It was an honor to share the surgical session with the inventor of the technique of Holmium Laser enucleation, Dr. Peter Gilling, and other super experts in laser prostatic surgery.

As always in these congresses I could see many friends, and it was specially good to see Dr. Henry Woo, from Sydney Australia, who invited me to return soon to help him with his learning curve in Green Laser enucleation.

Originally posted October 10, 2014

Today I saw that the urology journal "Actas Urológicas Españolas" has published our  review paper on the Urolift System for the treatment of BPH.

It is a minimally invasive treatment for BPH, specially indicated in younger patients with small prostates. 

Originally posted October 9, 2014

Again I went to Oporto to drive from there to the Hospital in Aveiro in order to train Dr. Antonio Oliveira in the technique of GreenLight En Bloc enucleation.

We performed two operations in two patients with massive prostates, that went very well.

This technique cannot be taken for granted, it must be learnt properly, performed with the right instruments, with excellent endoscopic visualization, with a modern morcellator and fast blades, and the most important, it is a team work. When all these factors are met, everything goes well!

As I returned to Madrid I got the good news that my new nephew Enrique was born!

Originally posted October 2, 2014

This time I drove from Madrid to Valencia to participate in a surgical session at the University Hospital Dr. Peset, invited by the Department of Urology.

The staff at the Hospital had selected three patients to allow me to demonstrate the different surgical approaches existing with the GreenLight Laser.

The session went very well and it was very nice to be able to share and demonstrate these techniques. Then I drove back to Madrid.

Originally posted September 29, 2014

I arreived to Florence from Rome in the morning to participate at the Italian yearly National Congress of Urology.

First I wandered through the congress venue for a while and then I was taken to the Hospital to perform a live surgical retransmission to the congress main auditorium, where more than 1200 italian urologists attended.

The operating rooms were impressive and the organization of the retransmission was fantastic. I could perfectly show the steps of the anatomic vaporization technique, and it had a great impact, as it allows to visualize the surgical capsule of the prostate in a way urologists are not used to, and it went very well.

Then I returned to the congress to moderate a round table on new technologies in the surgical treatment of BPH, with my friend Dr. Carlo Terrone, which was also very interesting.

Finally I took a train back to Rome to return to Madrid that same night.

Originally posted September 26, 2014

Again I went to Sofia to operate at the Hill Clinic, where we had 14 patients waiting to be operated from their BPH during the weekend.

Everything went very well, and we did a great team work.

In this photo with Dr. Georgi Georgiev, who is part of the Hill Clinic Urology team with Dr. Botsevski and Dr. Kotsev. On Sunday night I went to Rome as I was participating in the Italian Congress on Monday.

Originally posted September 26, 2014

This time I participated in a meeting on BPH organized by our colleagues at Clinica La Luz in Madrid. They were so kind to invite me to talk about the technique I developed, Green Laser Enucleation of the Prostate.

Other surgeons sat at the round table on BPH laser treatment. It was a nice session masterfully guided by Dr. Bernardino Miñana. I was very happy to meet my elder resident, Dr. Peinado. Then I went to the airport on my way to Bulgaria where we had a tough surgical weekend ahead.

Originally posted September 24, 2014

Today we received the visit of Dr. Luis Labiru, from Hospital de Donosti, San Sebastián and Dr. Alberto Martín Marquina, from the University Hospital from Alava, Spain.

They joined me in the surgical session at Clínica CEMTRO, in which I performed four operations on patients suffering from Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia. The session went very well and I could show them the new surgical techniques, GreenLight vapo-enucleation and En Bloc enucleation.

Originally posted September 18, 2014

Yesterday I travelled from Madrid to Toulouse to participate in a surgical session with Dr. Vincent Misrai at Clinique Pasteur.

Dr. Misrai has been very adamant in adopting the new techniques I developed to operate patients with Benign prostatic hyperplasia with the GreenLight Laser, specially the En-Bloc Enucleation technique. He has come to visit us in Madrid and Bulgaria to see surgeries and learn. He told me that he has already performed 50 cases.

We did three operations in the morning, all En-Bloc enucleations. He performed the fist case and I could ascertain that he now dominates the technique and has overcome his learning curve.

I did the second case, a patient with a 190 gram prostate, and also the third, a patient with a 120 gram prostate that I operated while Dr. Misrai explained the procedure to the local press who came to witness the session.

Everything went very well and we both learnt a great deal. This technique requires specific instruments, very specialized team work with an assistant that knows the instruments and is confident to manipulate the morcelator. It is also fundamental to stick to a few surgical principles, delicate dissection technique, perfect hemostasis and attention to detail during the morcellation.

It is fantastic to have friends who share the same passion and to be able to share experiences and knowledge. Then I returned to Madrid, with some delay, as always... but happy!

Originally posted September 11, 2014

Today we had a press round at Clinica CEMTRO to present the new Biopsee system for the advanced diagnosis of prostate cancer, this is based in the fusion of 3 Tesla MRI imaging with tridimensional Ultrasound of the prostate and targeted transperineal biopsies. We call it "prostate mapping".

In the photo, Dr. Mario Padrón, Head of the Radiology department at Clínica CEMTRO, Dr. Estefanía Romero, from our team at ICUA and myself speaking to the press.

We are very proud to be pioneers in Spain in the application of this technique that triples the precision and minimizes risk of prostate biopsy for the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Also we are introducing for the first time in Spain the Histological diagnosis in less than 24 hours, which is commonplace in other european cities but not available in Spain until today.



For more info, please follow this  link.

Originally posted September 10, 2014

Today I received the confirmation that I am invited to participate as lecturer at the course on "GreenLight Laser for the Treatment of BPH" that will take place at the American Urological Association Annual Congress that will take place in May in New Orleans.

I will share podium with Prof. Henry Woo (Sidney, Australia) and Prof. Oliver Reich (Munich, Germany). My role will be to discuss the techniques I developed, anatomic vaporization, vapo-enucleation and En bloc enucleation.

Originally posted August 31, 2014

After the summer holidays I started working in Sofia, Bulgaria, as I do every month. This time we received visitors who travelled all the way from Japan to witness the session. They preferred to remain anonymous.

Two days of surgery that went very well. I am sad to see how the days are getting shorter as the summer comes to an end. I returned to Madrid to start the season, back to work!

Originally posted July 31, 2014

Again I went to Portugal, this was my last trip before my summer holidays, to operate with Dr. Antonio Oliveira at Hospital Sanfil in Coimbra. When I arrived the luggage handling company at the airport was on a strike, so we had to delay the start of the session significantly.

We performed three operations , all en bloc enucleations, that went very well. Then I returned to Madrid with great delay... late at night, really tired after a long day. Fortunately I started my summer holidays the following day!