Live surgery at a minimally invasive surgery symposium at Westerstede, Germany

Again I travelled to the Ammerland Klinik in Westerstede, Germany, to participate in a symposium on minimally invasive surgery in urology. My role was to perform a live transmission of a Green Laser Eucleation of the Prostate, that was broadcasted from the hospital to the hotel where the symposium was celebrated.

They chose a patient with a prostate over 140 cc, a difficult case, to allow me to demonstrate live the advantages of this technique even in complex cases.

The case went wonderfully well, I could demonstrate the technique steps and its advantages, the excellent visualization, the absence of bleeding, the perfect anatomical dissection and the speed, as we could finish in less than 90 minutes of surgery. I was accompanied by my friend Dr. Schmidt, and I enjoyed the assistance of personnel from Richard Wolf, the company that manufactures the best surgical instruments to carry out this procedure and the best morcellator in the world, the Piranha system with the single use fast blades Vmax.

This was the weight of the tissue retrieval basket, that we will send for histological analysis. A big prostate gland indeed!

Then I went to the hotel where the symposium took place, and there I gave a talk on the evolution of surgery with the GreenLight laser.

Then I returned to Madrid to enjoy the rest of the weekend, after having worked hard for 15 days.

Surgical session in Sofia, Bulgaria

Again I travelled to Sofia to operate at a two-day surgical session at Hill Clinic. This time we received the visit of two German Urologists, Dr. Klaus Brunken and Dr. Ulrich Witzsch. Also I was very happy to receive the visit of my good friend Dr. Benjamin Choi, from New York.

We shared a very intense surgical weekend, with 12 surgical operations in which I showed them the technique of prostatic enucleation with the Greenligh laser. It is always interesting to share these experiences with other expert colleagues, as their comments are very interesting and make me learn a lot!

Surgical session at Clinica CEMTRO with international visitors

Today we had an intense surgical day at Clínica CEMTRO. We performed five surgical operations and we received the visit of the French urologists Dr. López and Dr. Riviere, from the Hospital Saint Augustin in Bordeaux,  Dr. Mandron, from Toulouse, my friend Dr. Paulo Ferreira de Matos Guimaraes, from Lisboa, Dr. Antonio Guilherme Oliveira, from Figueira da Foz and lastly the Spanish urologists Dr. Marcos Cepeda from Hospital Rio Hortega in Valladolid and Dr. Manu Díaz, from the Hospital General de Catalunya.

We perfomed anatomic vaporization, vapo-enucleation and GreenLight enucleation. A very intense and interesting session with many visitors to the operating theatre!

Laser Course in Pordenone, Italy

This time I went to Italy to visit the Ospedale Santa María degli Angeli in Pordenone, Italy, where I was invited to participate at a course on advance techniques for the treatment of BPH with the GreenLight laser.

There I operated with Dr. Lorenzo Ruggera, who was already visiting us in Madrid, and other urologists invited to the course. We performed three operations demonstrating the anatomic vaporization and vapor-enucleation technique. All went very well and then I departed to Sofia, via Munich, for a surgical weekend.

New surgical session at Hesperia Hospital in Modena, Italy

Again I flew to Modena, Italy, to operate with Dr. Giovanni Ferrari at the Hesperia Hospital.

Giovanni had prepared a surgical session with four patients, and we received the visit of five italian urologists who came to see procedures. I performed two GreenLEP (Green Laser enucleation of the prostate) procedures in two patients with big prostates (bigger than 100 cc) and two hybrid procedures of vapo-enucleation.

These procedures guarantee the total removal of BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia) tissue and allow to obtain a fantastic and durable result in patients with this condition. I think all urologists who come to witness it are convinced that it is a new approach for the treatment of BPH that is interesting and convincing!

The Piranha morcellator from Richard Wolf is a wonderful instrument, it allows to extract prostatic tissue from the bladder at a 10-20 gram per minute pace. Using it one can morcellate a 100 gram prostate in 5-10 minutes. This has shortened the procedures very much, and I think it is a factor that will contribute to push the adoption of laser endoscopic enucleation worldwide.