Surgical session at Hill Clinic in Sofia

Again I went to Sofia to operate at Hill Clinic,  this is my last trip before I take my summer holidays.

This time we had a lot of work and we did 23 prostatectomies in several days.

I am very fortunate to be able to collaborate with Hill Clinic. I feel we help a lot of patients. It is typical there to operate old patients with big prostatic glands that carry a urinary catheter, with a lot of co-morbidities (cardiac, diabetic patients) that make them high risk surgical candidates.

Everything went very well, the laser enucleation technique is no doubt the gold standard for the treatment of BPH. It is impressive to see the patients the next day, as if we had not operated them. I love to see how we can operate a high number of patients with a minimal complication rate. In this session, for example, no patient had any significant intra or postoperative complication. The surgical time is getting shorter, we did some of the procedures in less than 30 minutes.

We operated patients with small, medium and big prostatic sizes (we extracted 160 grams of tissue from one of the patients with a huge gland). We left a lot of work for the pathologist, literally kilos of prostate tissue.

Then I returned to Madrid. I work monday and tuesday and then I will take my summer holidays. Despite my love for my work I feel like resting a little bit!

Visitors from Israel

Today we received the visit of two representatives from the laser manufacturing company Lumenis, who came to watch surgeries and to exchange knowledge and ideas.

I performed several operations with Holmium laser that went really well.

Moshe Shtengel, Director of Global Marketing of Lumenis, left a comment in our visitors book.

GreenLEP mentoring in Udine, Italy

Yesterday I went to the hospital in Udine, Italy, to help Dr. Simone Crivellaro in a surgical session. The objective was to help him with his first case of GreenLEP (GreenLight Enucleation of the Prostate). Dr. Crivellaro had already been at Hill Clinic in Bulgaria to witness some procedures some months ago.

We performed two operations in two patients with very large prostates, of 120 grams. Maybe they were not the best patients to learn with, as big prostates are technically more demanding.

I performed the first case, we obtained 115 grams of prostatic tissue, and then Dr. Crivellaro started the second case and I finished it. We also obtained a big volume of tissue, 110 grams of prostatic adenoma, in this case.

The session was very interesting. I believe this technique can be taught when the surgeon already has experience with vaporization. Dr. Crivellaro told me he has operated already 300 patients with vaporization. Now he will have to develop his experience with GreenLEP.

Surgeries with Dr. Gaston at Clinica CEMTRO in Madrid

Today we received the visit of Dr. Richard Gaston who came to operate with us at Clínica CEMTRO.

We performed two laparoscopic radical prostatectomies in patients with prostate cancer. We had Dr. Juarez, from Gran Canaria, joining us for the session as we were operating one of his patients.

Everything went very well, Dr. Gaston is a true master of the technique and he feels at home operating with us after seven years of collaboration, also our colleague Estefanía Romero was trained in laparoscopy at his center, so they work in perfect synchrony.

Again he commented his interest of welcoming me in September at Clinique Saint Agustin in Bordeaux to help them start with their experience with their brand new Holmium laser for the treatment of BPH and I will help them with pleasure.