Originally posted October 29, 2014

Today we received the visit to ICUA, at Clínica CEMTRO, of various Spanish urologists who came to witness some green light laser surgeries. We received the visit of Dr. Manuel Ruibal, from the Complejo Hospitalario of Pontevedra, Dr. Gómez Pascual, from Hospital Carlos Haya in Malaga, Dr. Miguel Suarez, from the Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias in Oviedo and Dr. Juliana Escobar from the Hospital del Tajo.

I could demonstrate the different technical variants, as anatomic vaporization, vapo-enucleation and the Green Laser Enucleation of the prostate.

The session went very well and as always it was a pleasure to share with my colleagues passionate for GreenLight laser surgery for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Originally posted October 24, 2014

This thursday I flew late at night to Bilbao, I slept there and went early in the morning to the Hospital de Cruces.

They had prepared two patients so I could operate them and show the GreenLEP technique. Unfortunately one of them was cancelled and I could only perform one of the operations. It was enough though to spark their interest in this wonderful technique. I then returned to Madrid to rest for the weekend.

Originally posted October 17, 2014

Again we received the visit of Dr. Richard Gastón, From Bordeaux, France. He comes to operate with us at ICUA in the Clínica CEMTRO every month. In this occasion we performed five operations in patients with cancer during two days, that went very well.

I am very happy as after seven years of collaboration with Dr. Gaston as an invited professor, briefly Dr. Gaston will become in full right a member of the staff at ICUA. So the collaboration with him will be intensified and he will come more often to Madrid to see patients in clinics and perform surgeries as a member of the team, and no longer as an invited surgeon.

In this occasion we had the pleasure to receive the visit of Dr. Georgi Georgiev, from the Hill Clinic of Sofia, Bulgaria, with which we have had a very special collaboration for the last five years. He helped us in the operations. In the photo he is in the center, with Dr. Gaston and Dr. Romero.

Originally posted October 14, 2014

This time I flew early from Madrid, to reach Glasgow in time to participate in the Session of Surgical Tips: Surgical Management of Symptomatic BPH in the Laser Era" chaired by Dr. Mostafá El-Hilali (Canada) and Dr. James Lingeman (USA).

My role in the session was to present the technique that I recently published of Green Laser Enucleation of the Prostate. It was an honor to share the surgical session with the inventor of the technique of Holmium Laser enucleation, Dr. Peter Gilling, and other super experts in laser prostatic surgery.

As always in these congresses I could see many friends, and it was specially good to see Dr. Henry Woo, from Sydney Australia, who invited me to return soon to help him with his learning curve in Green Laser enucleation.

Originally posted October 10, 2014

Today I saw that the urology journal "Actas Urológicas Españolas" has published our  review paper on the Urolift System for the treatment of BPH.

It is a minimally invasive treatment for BPH, specially indicated in younger patients with small prostates. 

Originally posted October 9, 2014

Again I went to Oporto to drive from there to the Hospital in Aveiro in order to train Dr. Antonio Oliveira in the technique of GreenLight En Bloc enucleation.

We performed two operations in two patients with massive prostates, that went very well.

This technique cannot be taken for granted, it must be learnt properly, performed with the right instruments, with excellent endoscopic visualization, with a modern morcellator and fast blades, and the most important, it is a team work. When all these factors are met, everything goes well!

As I returned to Madrid I got the good news that my new nephew Enrique was born!

Originally posted October 2, 2014

This time I drove from Madrid to Valencia to participate in a surgical session at the University Hospital Dr. Peset, invited by the Department of Urology.

The staff at the Hospital had selected three patients to allow me to demonstrate the different surgical approaches existing with the GreenLight Laser.

The session went very well and it was very nice to be able to share and demonstrate these techniques. Then I drove back to Madrid.

Originally posted September 29, 2014

I arreived to Florence from Rome in the morning to participate at the Italian yearly National Congress of Urology.

First I wandered through the congress venue for a while and then I was taken to the Hospital to perform a live surgical retransmission to the congress main auditorium, where more than 1200 italian urologists attended.

The operating rooms were impressive and the organization of the retransmission was fantastic. I could perfectly show the steps of the anatomic vaporization technique, and it had a great impact, as it allows to visualize the surgical capsule of the prostate in a way urologists are not used to, and it went very well.

Then I returned to the congress to moderate a round table on new technologies in the surgical treatment of BPH, with my friend Dr. Carlo Terrone, which was also very interesting.

Finally I took a train back to Rome to return to Madrid that same night.

Originally posted September 26, 2014

Again I went to Sofia to operate at the Hill Clinic, where we had 14 patients waiting to be operated from their BPH during the weekend.

Everything went very well, and we did a great team work.

In this photo with Dr. Georgi Georgiev, who is part of the Hill Clinic Urology team with Dr. Botsevski and Dr. Kotsev. On Sunday night I went to Rome as I was participating in the Italian Congress on Monday.

Originally posted September 26, 2014

This time I participated in a meeting on BPH organized by our colleagues at Clinica La Luz in Madrid. They were so kind to invite me to talk about the technique I developed, Green Laser Enucleation of the Prostate.

Other surgeons sat at the round table on BPH laser treatment. It was a nice session masterfully guided by Dr. Bernardino Miñana. I was very happy to meet my elder resident, Dr. Peinado. Then I went to the airport on my way to Bulgaria where we had a tough surgical weekend ahead.

Originally posted September 24, 2014

Today we received the visit of Dr. Luis Labiru, from Hospital de Donosti, San Sebastián and Dr. Alberto Martín Marquina, from the University Hospital from Alava, Spain.

They joined me in the surgical session at Clínica CEMTRO, in which I performed four operations on patients suffering from Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia. The session went very well and I could show them the new surgical techniques, GreenLight vapo-enucleation and En Bloc enucleation.

Originally posted September 18, 2014

Yesterday I travelled from Madrid to Toulouse to participate in a surgical session with Dr. Vincent Misrai at Clinique Pasteur.

Dr. Misrai has been very adamant in adopting the new techniques I developed to operate patients with Benign prostatic hyperplasia with the GreenLight Laser, specially the En-Bloc Enucleation technique. He has come to visit us in Madrid and Bulgaria to see surgeries and learn. He told me that he has already performed 50 cases.

We did three operations in the morning, all En-Bloc enucleations. He performed the fist case and I could ascertain that he now dominates the technique and has overcome his learning curve.

I did the second case, a patient with a 190 gram prostate, and also the third, a patient with a 120 gram prostate that I operated while Dr. Misrai explained the procedure to the local press who came to witness the session.

Everything went very well and we both learnt a great deal. This technique requires specific instruments, very specialized team work with an assistant that knows the instruments and is confident to manipulate the morcelator. It is also fundamental to stick to a few surgical principles, delicate dissection technique, perfect hemostasis and attention to detail during the morcellation.

It is fantastic to have friends who share the same passion and to be able to share experiences and knowledge. Then I returned to Madrid, with some delay, as always... but happy!

Originally posted September 11, 2014

Today we had a press round at Clinica CEMTRO to present the new Biopsee system for the advanced diagnosis of prostate cancer, this is based in the fusion of 3 Tesla MRI imaging with tridimensional Ultrasound of the prostate and targeted transperineal biopsies. We call it "prostate mapping".

In the photo, Dr. Mario Padrón, Head of the Radiology department at Clínica CEMTRO, Dr. Estefanía Romero, from our team at ICUA and myself speaking to the press.

We are very proud to be pioneers in Spain in the application of this technique that triples the precision and minimizes risk of prostate biopsy for the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Also we are introducing for the first time in Spain the Histological diagnosis in less than 24 hours, which is commonplace in other european cities but not available in Spain until today.



For more info, please follow this  link.

Originally posted September 10, 2014

Today I received the confirmation that I am invited to participate as lecturer at the course on "GreenLight Laser for the Treatment of BPH" that will take place at the American Urological Association Annual Congress that will take place in May in New Orleans.

I will share podium with Prof. Henry Woo (Sidney, Australia) and Prof. Oliver Reich (Munich, Germany). My role will be to discuss the techniques I developed, anatomic vaporization, vapo-enucleation and En bloc enucleation.

Originally posted August 31, 2014

After the summer holidays I started working in Sofia, Bulgaria, as I do every month. This time we received visitors who travelled all the way from Japan to witness the session. They preferred to remain anonymous.

Two days of surgery that went very well. I am sad to see how the days are getting shorter as the summer comes to an end. I returned to Madrid to start the season, back to work!

Originally posted July 31, 2014

Again I went to Portugal, this was my last trip before my summer holidays, to operate with Dr. Antonio Oliveira at Hospital Sanfil in Coimbra. When I arrived the luggage handling company at the airport was on a strike, so we had to delay the start of the session significantly.

We performed three operations , all en bloc enucleations, that went very well. Then I returned to Madrid with great delay... late at night, really tired after a long day. Fortunately I started my summer holidays the following day!

Originally posted July 29, 2014

At last the website of the congress Challenges in Endourology 2014 has published the video of the live surgical transmission I performed in Paris recently.

The video feed can be accessed here.

Originally posted July 25, 2014

Again I went to Sofia, Bulgaria, to participate in a training session at Hill Clinic. This time we operated 24 patients with the GreenLEP technique for several days.

We received the visit of Dr. Antonio Oliveira, from Portugal, and we enjoyed much the interaction with him. Hill Clinic celebrated its 5 years and I think I can say that it is one of the best teams in the world for surgery of BPH. The quality of the team work we do there is exceptionally good.

At the end of the session I took a photo with all the specimens of the patients operated, more than 1 Kilo of prostatic tissue.

Also, we managed to extract 230 grams of tissue from a single patient with a huge prostate. I was very impressed myself to see the size of this prostate and how well the patient did postop. GreenLEP is a very solid technique, and of course, the Piranha system for morcellation with the Vmax blades help a lot.

Originally posted July 21, 2014

Again I went to Australia, this time invited by the USANZ (Urology Society of Australia and New Zealand) to participate in the 7th Asia Pacific Photoselective Vaporisation of the Prostate Workshop that was held at the Sydney Adventist Hospital, directed by Prof. Henry Woo.

With Prof. Woo, we also had in the faculty Dr. Syd Weinstein and Dr. Tom Dean, also from Australia.

When I arrived at the course, they were carrying out the observed advanced techniques observation part of the course, with many simulators in several working stations. I was impressed by the quality of the installations devoted to teaching at the hospital.

I had to give a talk on the development of the GreenLEP technique after a very kind introduction from Prof. Woo.

Then we went to the Hospital, for the live surgery part of the congress.

Prof. Woo performed a conventional PVP and then I performed three operations on three patients. An anatomic vaporization, a hybrid technique with enucleation of the median lobe and a GreenLEP procedure.

After the operations we came down to the auditorium where the surgeries were transmitted and we answered the questions from the audience. Everything went very well, and I think we managed to break the preconceptions of may attendees and showed the fantastic versatility of the GreenLight laser.

We had a great time and I think this is the best laser prostatectomy for the treatment of BPH course in the world. It was a great honor to participate.

Prof. Woo was a really nice and generous host and the USANZ gave me an exceptional present, a pair of Australian boots from RM Williams, the best manufacturer of boots in Australia. A great present!

Originally posted July 10, 2014

Again I travelled to Barcelona to participate in a surgical teaching session, invited by Dr. Javier Sánchez, Head of the department of Urology of the Hospital de Mollet del Vallés, in Barcelona.

I performed a GreenLight en bloc enucleation in a patient with a relatively big prostate. There was Dr. Placer as well, he is a reference in Spain in the treatment of BPH with the Holmium laser. It is always a pleasure to meet with colleagues who share the same passion. We took a photo and laughed when Dr. Sánchez Macías took the warning sign from the operating room door saying DANGER!

I could then return home early, wonderful.