Video presentation at the European Urology Congress

Today I presented a video on the surgical recommendations of the IGLU (International Greenligh Users Group) on Greenlight HPS laser prostatectomy at the European Urology Congress. It was programmed to be presented at the main auditorium, and there were countless urologists from all over the world in the room. The video explains a step by step approach to greenlight HPS laser prostatectomy. I will try to upload it here when I get back to Madrid.

In this image, during the questions and answers turn.

European Association of Urology Congress

Yesterday was the kick-off day for the Annual Congress of the European Association of Urology, with more than 9000 delegates from all over the world. I think it is the second most important congress in urology, after the American congress. In the afternoon, we celebrated a simposium on the new Greenlight HPS laser for the treatment of BPH. The symposium has coincided with the publication of our European Urology Supplement where we present the technical recommendations and the first wolrdwide results published on the treatment of BPH with this laser.


The symposium was moderated by Dr. Jean de la Rossette (right) and Dr. Alex Bachmann (left), Dr. Oliver Reich and myself did the presentations. The conference room was packed, with more than 400 attendees from all over the world.


First I spoke on recommendations on training and surgical technique, then Alex presented the results of the multicentric prospective study we are carrying out and finally Oliver spole on the use of this laser for the treatment of patients with big prostates, high risk patients and those under anticoagulation.


It was a very interesting symposim, we had many questions from the floor... a real success. Tomorrow I am presenting the video with technical recommendations that I will try to post here...

New visit to Jedda, Saudi Arabia

I am writing this entry to the blog from the airport in Istanbul, Turkey. I am returning to Madrid from Saudi Arabia, where I have been invited to train the urologists from Hospital King Abdul Aziz, from Jedda.

Here I found two friends; Dr. Hassan Farisi, who recently came to visit me in Madrid, and Dr. Abdulmalik Tayib, who also came to Madrid in the past and who I visited at the International Medical Center in Jedda.

We did seven operations with the new Greenligth HPS laser that went fine, in two very intense surgical sessions.

I had a chance to visit Jedda a little, an impressive city due to its size and a very modern one... this artificial geiser shoots water up to 200 meters. It is the highest in the world. I laughed with some of the urologists from this hospital comparing this to the flow I hope all patients will have after the operation... In sum, a new experience, very interesting, new friends... but I am quite tired after this... so I hope to rest a little during the Easter Holidays next week.

Visitor from Germany

Today I had the enormous pleasure of receiving the visit of Dr. Rainer Smith, an expert KTP laser user from Hamburg, Germany, who came to share his experiences with me. He watched two procedures and we had time to talk and exchange ideas and opinions. He is a delightful man and we enjoyed a lot together. I took a photo with him, but he bent down... he is really much taller than I am.

Inauguration of the first Greenlight laser in Venezuela

This weekend I flew to Caracas, to help with the first greenlight HPS laser installed in Venezuela, invited by the Instituto de Clínicas y Urología Tamanaco and Equisa, the distributor of AMS in Venezuela. I flew with Air Europa, who lost my suitcase... apparently it went to Cuba instead... I think I will never fly with a suitcase again...

We started with two talks in the morning, with the attendance of more than 80 urologists, and then I performed two operations that were transmitted to the meeting room. Both operations went really well.



The session was a huge success and there was a great deal of euphoria in the room... All urologists present had heard and read a lot about Greenlight laser vaporization of the prostate and were anxious to seeing it live, and they were not dissapointed.

After the meeting, I helped Dr. Vargas to operte three additional patients, and after a long and hard day we went to celebrate to a fantastic restaurant where we tried the best Venezuelan meat cuts... I enjoyed a lot, but at the end of the dinner the jet lag got me... so I went to sleep.

Today Dr. Juan Carlos Vargas is taking me out to see Caracas, and then back to the airport, still without my suitcase, but happy after a wonderful weekend in Venezuela.

Online Publication of our European Urology Supplement

Today I received the news that European Urology Supplements has published online the collection of articles we have been working on after the second meeting of the IGLU Group (International Greenlight Users) that was held in Madrid in July.

We invited Prof. Reza Malek, from the Mayo Clinic, the pioneer investigator of the use of the Greenlight laser to treat Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia to write the introduction, and we prepared four papers on history, surgical technique, recommendations for training, results in patients subgroups, and an article on complications and how to avoid them.

We hope this supplement will help to standardize the surgical technique for Greenlight HPS vaporization of the prostate, and help all urologists worldwide who are using this technique or are interested in using it.