Trip to Mexico (II): Mexico D.F. - Hospital Angeles Pedregal

Today we did another workshop in another hospital in Mexico D.F. This time we did two operations and then another talk. Everything went fine. One of the patients was the father of a local doctor. I asked him to come to theatre to be with his father. When I went out of the operating room his family had bought me a huge bottle of the finest tequila. I will drink it (little by little) to his health!!


After finishing the training session, we went to the airport to fly to Guadalajara. That night I went to Dr. Jorge Gutierrez's house, the prestigious Mexican urologist and president of the World Congress of Endourology, who had invited for dinner to all surgeons operating live at the World Congress. There I shared the table with Jean de la Rosette, Pilar Laguna, Octavio Castillo, Gunter Janetschek, Ralph Clayman, Peter Gilling... we had a great time.

The next day I will operate a patient with BPH and the operation will be transmitted to the World Congress venue in Cancún.

Trip to Mexico (I): Mexico D.F. - Hospital Angeles Lomas

This Sunday I flew to Mexico DF. I planned to participate in a coupe of workshops in this city and then travel to Guadalajara to perform a live surgery that will be transmitted to the World Congress of Endourology that takes place in Cancún. It is a week long trip and I am very happy to be invited to such an important congress.

The first workshop took place in the Hospital Angeles Lomas. I did a talk on Greenlight laser treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia and then I performed a surgical procedure.

It was a delightful session and I had the pleasure of meeting there my old friends Dr. López Cueto, from Puerto Vallarta, the pioneer user of the Greenlight laser in Mexico, and with Dr. Francisco Barrios, also an early adopter of this technology.

I first gave a talk on Greenlight laser for the treatment of BPH.

Then we went to the surgical room to perform a procedure that was retransmitted to the meeting room. Dr. Barrios was with me in theatre and Dr. López Cueto was the moderator from the meeting room.

After the operation, we gave certifications to those attending the session and we went together for dinner.

I was impressed by the quality of this Hospital and by the human warmth of these mexican doctors.

Surgical session in Cabueñes and meeting with the press

Today I visited the Hospital in Cabueñes, Asturias. I went to see my colleagues and friends Dr. Muruamendiaraz, Cuervo and Tamargo. They pioneered this treatment modality in Asturias some years ago, and organised a surgical session and a press round.



The cases were difficult, huge prostates, purely Asturian. I had a hard time completing them, but I could manage them satisfactorily at the end, we had time to discuss the Greenlight laser with the press.

These are some links related to the pressround output...

http://www.elcomerciodigital.com/gijon/20071018/gijon/cabuenes-pedira-salud-incorporacion-20071018.html
http://www.lne.es/secciones/noticia.jsp?pRef=1794_35_568351__Gijon-Laser-verde-para-prostata

http://tv.lne.es/index.php?detector=2310&UserID=8037120181496261193121940000703500&VideoId=3546


Then we went to have lunch at 5 pm, and after that there was no need for dinner....

Weekend in Gran Canaria

Wednesday morning I departed to Gran Canaria (one of the Canary Islands) with my family. On thursday, we operated in the Clínica Santa Catalina with Dr. Juarez, the Director of the Gabinete de Urología y Andrología in Gran Canaria. Dr. Juarez had scheduled three operations with the new Greenlight HPS, two big prostates and a smaller one, that were uneventful.



We had a great time together, discussing the new technical aspects and all the tips and tricks I recently learned. The truth is that on top of collaborating professionally we have become very good friends and we will spend the rest of the weekend together with the family in Gran Canaria.

Surgery in Sevilla

This Tuesday I took the high speed train to Seville to help a colleague with a difficult case. A patient with a huge prostate.

It was kind of weird to see that in the contiguous theatre a group of urologists struggled with an open prostatectomy in a patient with BPH... I was suprised to see how in the same moment in history, in the same place, a patient received the classic treatment and another patient the modern Greenlight laser treatment. Our patient left home the morning after and the other patient will have to stay at least 5 days in hospital, and will leave anemic, after having endured the postoperative recovery of open surgery....

The operation went fine, although it was a long one (I delivered 800.000 Joules) and then I took the train back to Madrid.

Athens

After finishing my friday morning surgical list (I did two laser cases, one of them had a huge 220 g prostate) I took the plane to Athens, where I had to meet my colleagues from the IGLU (International Greelight Users) Group. We had a lot to talk about. We are working on a paper pooling our prospective experience with the Greenlight HPS laser, and also a supplement describing the technique and recommendations of use and training, that will be published in European Urology.




We used the opportunity that the congress on Innovations & EBM in Urology was being celebrated there and that Gordon Muir, Alex Bachmann and Jean de la Rossette were already there, because they were presenting data on this laser in the symposium. Oliver Reich and I travelled to see them all there. The place was really beautiful, and very close to athens.


I had a ticket to return on saturday, but the meeting took longer than anticipated and I changed the flight to Sunday. I used the opportunity to work with Gordon Muir in a paper on surgical technique we are preparing together.

Visitor from Portugal

Today I had programmed some operations in Madrid, and we received the visit from Dr. Fino Correia, from Portugal. I did two Greenlight HPS laser prostatectomies, on a 60 gram and then a 220 gram prostate in an 81 year old high risk patient. We had time enough to discuss every aspect about the technique, and I shared all my surgical tricks with him.

We had a great time, and both operations went fine. I then drove to the airport as I am leaving today to Athens, to a meeting. I found out that my plane is delayed, so I started writing this entry of the blog.

I managed to enucleate a fragment from the median lobe of the prostate and extract it with a
Boston Scientific's Zero Tip big stone extraction basket, in order to show Dr. Correia the fine line of coagulated tissue that this laser produces. I took the photo with my mobile, and it is not perfectly clear, but it is easy to see how little damage this laser causes to the prostate, and how it coagulates just enough to avoid bleeding, but not more than that.

Morning in Barcelona

Today I woke up earlier than my alarm clock. I could not sleep any more, so I decided to go to the airport taking my time and listening to nice music. We had programmed a training session with Dr. Batlle in Barcelona. As I travel quite a lot in aeroplanes, I followed Gordon Muir's advice and bought a pair of noise-cancelling headphones that are amazing, they virtually supress the background noise in the airplane. I have an iPod and I listen to relaxing music while I think and watch the sky... I specially love to see Barcelona waking up from the air, it is really special.

We have operated an anticoagulated patient with an 80 gram prostate together, everything went fine. I slept all the way back to Madrid in the aeroplane...