Trip to Mexico (III): Guadalajara - Live surgery for the World Congress of Endourology

This morning I woke up early to go to the Medical Center Puerta de Hierro, in Guadalajara (the Hospital where Dr. Jorge Gutierrez, the president of the World Congress of Endourology works), where all surgeries being transmitted live to Cancun would take place.

The set-up was impressive. Six simultaneous theatres, with many minimally invasive operations scheduled for the morning. In Cancun, three big screens and three moderators, to allow the more than 1200 urologists registered in the congress to choose what comments to listen to. It was very impressive to walk around the surgical theatres, world class surgeons in every one of them...

Dr. Octavio Castillo (Chile) performing a laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.

Dr. Ralph Clayman (EE.UU), performing a PCNL (Percutaneous Nephrolythotomy).


Dr. Peter Gilling (New Zealand), perfoming a Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate.

Dr. Mantu Gupta (EE.UU.), performing a flexible nephroureteroscopy.

My patient was an old man that had carried a urinary catheter since January. His prostate was relatively small and the operation took 35 minutes, but I had time enough to explain the new technique of photoselective vaporization of the prostate with the new high powered Greenlight HPS laser.


This technique was agreed at the IGLU (International Greenlight Users) Group meeting celebrated in Madrid in July. I thought it would be a good idea to name it "PVP 2.0" (Photoselective Vaporization of the Prostate 2.0) to differenciate it from the technique we used with the former 80 watt Greenlight PV laser, and to express that this technique should not aim to produce a tunnel in the prostate, but to perform a proper prostatectomy. The surgery went really well, it could not have gone better.

When I finished, my urology partner, Dr. Nacho Castillón, who was in Cancun at the convention center, sent me an SMS text message: "Fer: ha salido pfrto! ers un fenomeno, nacho". Ahh, I was so satisfied!!!. Everybody happy, the patient was grateful and I was so happy to be able to demonstrate in the most important forum in the world of endourology the fruit of so much effort and so much passion... When I was younger I was a professional swimmer, I trained very hard and I dreamt with going to the Olympic games. I felt as if I had achieved that, but in the world of Urology. It was quite an experience.
In the photo with Pilar Laguna, Octavio Castillo, Lee Roningen and Emily Smith.

Later on we went to the airport. The congress had prepare a private flight for all the surgeons that operated in Guadalajara, so we could return to Cancun as soon as possible. Then, at the hotel in Cancun, I had dinner by the beach, and I went to bed very tired, but so happy.