Surgical Saturday in the Canary Islands

This Saturday I travelled early to Gran Canaria to operate with Dr. Francisco Juarez, in the Santa Catalina Hospital of Las Palmas. Dr. Juarez has pioneered the HPS laser prostatectomy in the Canary Islands and he owns the first high powered greenlight laser (120 watts) in these islands. I am mentoring him in the technique.

After the first surgical session a couple of weeks ago, he had prepared an intense surgical list, we did 4 consecutive operations with the HPS laser. We operated two patients in the morning and then we had some time to rest and have a proper lunch in an Italian restaurant nearby. Then we continued in the afternoon and evening... all patients did very well and we had a good time together. The anaesthetists could not believe that at last there was a surgical option to open prostatectomy and TURP that does not cause bleeding, and they really were shocked when we told them that all patients would be home the next morning...


The we went out for dinner. After a brief sleep, I rushed to the airport to return to Madrid to spend the sunday at home. I still have some Jet lag after the AUA in anaheim...

From London to the AUA congress in Anaheim, California

This May 17th I travelled to London, where I stayed with Gordon Muir, one of the best HPS laser experts in the world. I was invited to participate with an interview in a new DVD that is being produced on laser prostatectomy with the HPS laser... this DVD apparently will be distributed to GPs and urologists around Europe.

The we travelled to Los Angeles, where we went to the American Urological Association Annual congress. We used the oportunity of flying together to work in a couple of editorial projects we are co-editing during the journey.

This year I was not presenting any scientific paper nor giving any talk, but I had important meetings with experts in HPS laser prostatectomy from all over the world. After the success of the KTP laser experts meeting held last year in Madrid (soon the conclusions of this meeting will be published in the Journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases), I will soon organize a second meeting, this time to discuss the new HPS laser. We will try to reach a consensus on how this laser should be used and how the operation should be performed and more importantly, how urologists and residents should be trained. We also will try to publish the conclusions of this meeting.

During the congress I also had the opportunity of attending the scientific sessions and participating in some courses. The AUA is a good meeting to learn and to keep updated. The congress center was just in front of Disneyland. My hotel was inside the park and every morning I had breakfast with Minnie, Lilo and Stich. I really missed my daughters...

Surgery in Sevilla

This morning I had to wake up early to reach the airport in time to catch the Iberia plane to Seville. As always, the plane had a problem and we had to step out of the plane and wait for a replacement. So I had to wait and wait until I finally got to Seville.

There I went to the Infanta Luisa hospital, where I have operated a patient with Dr. Felipe Ros. When we finished, we went to have lunch and enjoyed the "Salmorejo", a tipical plate from Seville. And finally we went to "Popular TV", where Dr. Ros is the director of a TV program on health and well being and he has interviewed me. It was very interesting as we managed to show some video footage from the operation.

I came back home in the AVE (High Speed Train), in only two hours and a half. The landscape was extremely beautiful, you could feel the magic of the Spring season. I think I will rather not to fly to Sevilla again.

Surgeries in TEKNON, Barcelona

This Tuesday we had the festivity of San Isidro in Madrid. This is the time of the year when all the bullfighting starts. I used the oportunity to fly to Barcelona to operate with Dr. Gil Vernet at the TEKNON medical center. We did two cases and then I got back to Madrid in the air shuttle, that was deserted... This medical center still uses the Greenlight KTP 80 watt laser, and it feels strange to go back to it, now being used to the new 120 watt HPS unit... it is so easy to get used to the good stuff...

Visitors from La Coruña

This thursday we received two visitors from La Coruña. We had three HPS laser prostatectomies in our list, and we all enjoyed a very interesting training session. One of the prostates was relatively big, with 130 grams, and a big median lobe. They were impressed by the ability of this laser to reproduce the same job one could get with the TURP, but with much less risk. They also enjoyed the anterior start technique (it can be seen in the screen, the photo was taken when I was creating the anterior initial channel).

Full length Greenlight HPS prostatectomy video

This video shows a Greenlight HPS endoscopic prostatectomy. It is a fast movie, compressing a 50 minute full lenght procedure into 10 minutes of video. It shows the "anterior start" strategy and discusses its benefits. I guess it will be more interesting for urologists, but some patients might also want to see how the procedure is performed.