Surgical Session in Barcelona

Today I took a flight to Barcelona, to participate in a surgical session of Photoselective Vaporization of the Prostate with the 80 watt KTP laser at Teknon Hospital in Barcelona.

We have operated two patients and both surgeries were uneventful. I then had to wait at the airport for a couple of hours before returning to Madrid. As we are in Christmas, there are less shuttle flights and I had to wait for longer than usual.

Both Madrid and Barcelona were extremely quiet, almost everybody is on holiday for Christmas, and that makes it more difficult to work!!!

Later I checked my mail and I had an invitation to travel to Saudi Arabia during the first week of February, to participate in the training of urologists from Riyadh and Al Khobar city in the use of the new Greenlight HPS laser...


This is the last entry of the year in this blog, and I would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a happy and successful 2007!!!

Conference in Cairo, Egypt

Today I returned to Madrid after spending a week in Egypt, where I was invited to the 41st Annual Congress of the Egyptian Urological Association to talk about my experience with PVP - Photoselective Vaporization of the Prostate with the Greenlight Laser.

I also had a chance to spend some days in Luxor with my family, and from there we went to Cairo, where the congress was being celebrated. Egypt is a beautiful country, and we enjoyed visiting the temples of Karnak, Luxor, the Nile and the exotic atmosphere of this amazing country.

After Luxor, we went to Cairo, I had to participate in two important events. The first one, a press round to launch this technique in Egypt, where I participated actively. After the press round, the beautiful Nile TV channel presenter interviewed me and we not only talked about the Greenlight laser, but also about prostate cancer and urinary incontinence.

That night I participated in the official presentation of the Greenlight System to the urologists attending the congress, and the programme included the participation of Mr. Martin Hill (EMEA Distributor Manager of AMS/Laserscope), Prof. Mostafa El Hilali, an eminent Egyptian Urologist that lives and works in Canada, and Dr. Yarkin Kamil Yakupoglu, from Turkey. We all spent about 20 minutes discussing the Greenlight system and after the scientific session we enjoyed a very nice Egyptian dinner.

Martin Hill, Dr. Kamil and me just before the start of the scientific session.


The next day I had a chance to visit El Cairo, and I enjoyed enormously visiting the Pyramids and the Museum of Cairo. The Pyramids are overwhelming.


I was most impressed by the mummy of Ramses II. I think going all the way to Cairo is worth it just to look at him, flesh and bones, after 3300 years.... he is still looks great, doesn't he?



And finally, I did my contribution to the congress itself, with the conference "Greenlight PVP", and with an impressive attendance...

After my talk, I had the chance to discuss this technique with surgeons from Jordan, Kuwait and other Middle east countries.

I was interviewed by the magazine HME that was distributed to all attendees. I am transcribing it below.


It has been a fantastic experience. I have enjoyed Egypt, and I recommend everyone to visit this wonderful country. The Egyptians are very kind people and the country is espectacular.

I was happy to receive an invitation to come back soon, maybe in February, to contribute to the training of the two first users of the Greenlight laser in Egypt.

HPS in action in a big prostate

This is a video of a Greenlight HPS Photoselective Vaporization of the Prostate in a man with a 130 g prostate. These prostates are very big and usually are treated with an open prostatectomy. I used a suprapubic trocar, a 5 mm tube that is inserted into the bladder under the belly button, to enhance irrigation and improve visibility. The patient was sent to the room after his operation and the trocar entry site only needed a sticker to close. He was operated at 3.00 pm and was discharged the following morning, without a catheter and very happy.

Training in Sweden

Yesterday I travelled to Stockholm, Sweden. I then took a taxi to Västeras. I have been invited to train two urologists from the Public Hospital in Västeras in the use of the new 120 watt Greelight HPS. I had dinner with Dr. Botan Hawas, head of the department of urology and an extremely pleasant man, and we had a chance to discuss the characteristics of this technique thoroughly.

This morning we started at 8 am and we have operated three patients. The first patient was a relatively easy case with a small prostate and he has been the first patient to be operated with the HPS in Scandinavia.


Then we did an 80 gram prostate with a very prominent median lobe, very interesting and with a big educational value. Finally we operated a patient with an advanced prostate cancer that was catheterised. We will do two more cases tomorrow before I return to Madrid.

The hospitals in Sweden are very different from Spanish hospitals, they have a very pleasant decoration, with large living rooms where patients and doctors can sit down to have a coffee. This must make patients feel at home during their hospital stay!!

Visitor from Saudi Arabia

Last week was intense. I had a visitor in Madrid, Dr. Khalid Al Othman, from Hospital King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Jedda, Saudi Arabia. There is a growing interest for the Greenlight HPS system in his country and he came to visit with the objective of learning as much as possible about this laser, as they plan to implement this technology in their department. We started the training programme with four operations on Tuesday. I had scheduled four cases with prostatic sizes of 160, 106, 90 y 45 grams so we had a chance to comment the technical details of the operation. Dr. Al Othman was trained in Canada and Germany, and he was very focused in listening and seeing everything, and I learnt a great deal with his comments and questions... Then on wednesday I picked him up early to go to the airport, we travelled to Barcelona where I had scheduled a surgical session with the famous Gil Vernet family of urologists. We are good friends and I have been going to Barcelona to operate with them regularly. We have decided to strengthen this collaboration in the future. We performed a Greenlight PVP with the 80 watt laser, and it was a good oportunity for Dr. Al Othman to realise the differences between the 120 watt HPS and the 80 watt Greenlight.


We also had a chance to discuss thoroughly urethral stenosis treatment, one of the passions of Dr. Gil Vernet, a true expert in this field.

We returned to Madrid later that night because we had a very intense session the next morning. On thursday I had scheduled 5 patients, this time prostatic sizes were smaller, 130, 80, 60, 45 and 9 grams, and the session was uneventful. Again the conversations with Dr. Al Othman were enjoyable, he is a sharp urologist and he was able to grasp the subtleties of PVP, he could see almost every kind of patient and he learned all the surgical tips and tricks. In one of the operations in a patient with a 130 gram prostate I used a suprapubic trocar to enhance irrigation, and I delivered 800.000 joules. I recorded this operation and I hope to be able to offer it here soon.

I have been invited to travel to Saudi Arabia soon to help Saudi urologists to learn the technique with the new HPS greenlight Laser. I look forward to that.