Surgery in Vienna

Today I have operated at the Urology department of the General Hospital in Vienna, invited by Prof. Marberger. This hospital is the biggest I have seen in my life. Apparently every day there are 70.000 people coming in and out the hospital, it has 50 surgical theatres and it employes 250 anaesthetists.... it is unbelievable, I had never seen anything like this. It is a huge place, a true health city.
The urology department is going to adopt the greenlight PVP (Photoselective vaporization of the prostate) technique, and I was invited to demonstrate the technique. I have operated three patients, two with relatively small prostates and one with a big gland and a huge median lobe. All three patients did really well. We also had time to talk slowly about the technical and scientifical issues about this technique. Tonight we will go out to dinner and although we thought we would operate also tomorrow, the session has been cancelled, apparently patients have suddenly decided they wanted to go on holiday... It is really hot in Vienna (35 degrees celsius), and they seem to have escaped heading north.
It was a great honour to be invited to operate at one of the best urology centers in the world, we will celebrate tonight dining in Vienna.

Second day in South Africa

This is my second day in South Africa. I visited Hospital Donald Gordon in Johannesburg, where we did three PVPs (photoselective vaporization of the prostate). The objective was to train two local urologists in this technique. As always, I started the first operation and then they took the initiative. All operations were uneventful and the outcome was satisfactory (so I am told, all patients did well postoperatively). Then I went to the airport to take a plane back to Madrid. This time my stay in South Africa was extremely short, there is no doubt I will try to come back...

Mentoring in South Africa

Again I went to Southafrica, this time to mentor two teams in Johannesburg. They are the first surgeons to offer the Greenlight PVP procedure in Africa. We went to Linkinsfield Park Hospital in Johannesburg to operate three patients.


I had the enormous honour of operating the first patient to be subjected to a PVP in the African continent... I shared this honour with Dr. Kevin Fisher, who finished the operation. After this first case, I helped Dr. Fisher to perform two operations that were very successful.

We will have dinner together tonight and tomorrow we will conduct a similar session in another hospital. Today the session was successful and everyone who saw the technique, anaesthetists, nurses, other surgeons, were very impressed by this technique.

In the news - Greenlight HPS

This clip appeared in the news after the presentation of the HPS greenlight laser in Madrid and the world experts summit.

We are on TV

This video was broadcasted by "Madrid Directo", a programme of the regional TV, TeleMadrid. It focuses in patient's experience of PVP. We operated him in the afternoon and he was discharged the morning after, so happy. Yesterday he phoned from the beach to say he was feeling great!!

Presentation of the HPS to the press and world experts summit

This weekend we presented the new HPS system to the Spanish press. We did it using the opportunity of the visit to Madrid of four renowned international experts in Greenlight Photoselective Vaporization of the prostate: Mr. Gordon Muir, from King's College Hospital, London; Dr. Shahin Tabatabei, from Massachussets General Hospital; Dr. Benjamin Choi, from Presbysterian Hospital, New York and Dr. Alex Bachmann, from the Basel University Hospital, Switzerland.


We all have a very broad experience in this operation, among the five of us, we have a combined experience of 3000 patients. The objective of their visit was to meet to carry out a surgical session where we would operate one patient each and use the opportunity to discuss technical aspects, strategies and tips and tricks of this surgical intervention. We wanted to share our points of view and reach a consensus on the best way of doing things. All surgeries were splendid and all patients recovered fast and went home very happy.


This saturday we gathered at the Institute of Advanced Urological Surgery in Madrid to establish a consensus on how this operation must be carried out, what to do and what to avoid, what are our recommendations on training residents and urologists, etc... We reached some conclusions that will be published in the form of one or two papers in an international Journal. It was a real pleasure to host these wonderful people and eminent urologists in Madrid. We have all enjoyed the opportunity to share our knowledge, and we think the papers that will come out of this meeting will be of great help as a guide for those urologists wanting to offer this treatment to their patients.

End of Puigvert training

At last we finished the training sessions for the urologists of Fundació Puigvert. From now on, they are on their own. I was there for a final session in theatres, I have received an invitation to participate at the International Congress they organise in October..

Interview for "La Razón"

Today, one of the most read Spanish Newspapers "La Razón" publishes an interview with me. I present the new Greenlight HPS system (HPS stands for High Performance System) for the first time in my country.

Masterclass with Dr. Gaston in Madrid

This saturday we received a visit from Dr. Richard Gaston, from Bordeaux. He came to visit as part of an ongoing collaboration with the Institute of Advanced Urological Surgery, from Madrid. We did three radical prostatectomies in one day, and then Dr. Gaston returned to Bordeaux at 7 pm. He is considered one of the best laparoscopists in the world, invented the technique of laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, and has performed more than 2000 procedures.

In the photo, Dr. Castillón, the director of the laparoscopy unit of the ICUA, assisting Dr. Gaston. This initiative allows our patients to access being treated by a world class surgeon, while we keep on learning from the best surgeon in Europe.