Surgeries in Las Palmas

Again I flew to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to operate with Dr. Juarez. He had prepared three patients and everything run smoothly as always. This time I did not remember to take photos until we finished surgery....



Dr. Juarez is getting ready to read his doctoral thesis soon. We were reviewing it together and it is an impressive piece of work. Francisco Juarez is an expert in reconstruction of the seminal ducts (microsurgical vasectomy reversal) and presents in his thesis impressive results. I will come back here to see his disertation.

Annual Congress of the American Urological Association

I spent from the 17th-24th of May in Orlando, Florida. At tne Annual Congress of the American Urological Association.

This year my participation consisted in the presentation of two posters, in collaboration with the IGLU (International Greenlight Users) Group. After our meeting in Madrid in June last year, we decided to gather the data from our patients treated with the Greenlight HPS laser in 7 international centers, and lastly we were presenting the conclusions of our studies in two separate posters.



One was presented by Dr. Shahin Tabatabei, from the Massachussets General Hospital, and the second poster by Dr. Henry Woo, from Sydney, Australia (although the man in the photo below is Mr. Gordon Muir, from London, also a member of the IGLU).

We also used the opportunity to plan new studies and new publications... We had several very fruitful discussions. On the other hand, it has been a vibrant congress, full of new concepts and discoveries...

The last day I had time to visit the Universal Studios, a wonderful place. I saw the Hulk passing by and I took a photo with him... (It is the only photo I took of myself during the congress).

Surgery in Thesaloniki

From Athens I flew to Thesaloniki with Dr. Dimitris Hatzichristou, the first urologist from this city to use the new Greenlight HPS 120 watt system. He had invited me to operate a difficult patient with a 150 gram prostate, he wanted to see with his own eyes how these cases can be handled with the Greenlight HPS laser.

Interestingly, he had also invited my colleague at the Institute of Advanced Urological Surgery, Dr. Ignacio Moncada, who was travelling there to perform a penile implant in a patient with a very difficult clinical situation. We both operated at Saint Lucas Hospital, a private center with an impressive technological and human dotation.

Both operations were complex, but successful. I had to use the suprapubic trocar to improve irrigation and I used 800.000 joules, at the end I was very happy with the outcome of the case.

In the photo, Dr. Dimitris Hatzichristou and Dr. Moncada before entering the hospital. When we finished, we went back to Madrid. There was no time to try the local famous Ouzo...

Conferences in Athens

This Friday I flew to Athens to participate in the meeting "Athenian Days of Urology", invited by the Greek urological society. This is an extremely popular scientific meeting where 450 urologists gather. I had to talk about the new results of the HPS laser and how to deal with big prostates... There were other international invited speakers, and very prestigious ones, like Patrick Walsh (the father of anatomic radical prostatectomy), David Neal, Philippe Grange, and so on... with a fantastic scientific programme.

The meeting room was full, because the greenlight is generating a great interest lately worldwide... and there were lots of questions at the end. The moderator of the session was my friend Gerasimos Alivizatos, the biggest expert in greenlight in Greece and a recognized european expert in Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia.


Then I took the opportunity to visit the Parthenon, and I walked for two hours in Athens, a very nice experience...This afternoon I will fly to Thessaloniki, as tomorrow I will be operating there a patient with a 150 gram prostate...

Surgical day in Vigo

Last Tuesday I flew to Vigo, in Galicia, to help my colleagues David Jamardo, Miguel Devesa and Vicente García Riestra to initiate their experience with the Greenlight HPS laser is the Hospital Nuestra Señora de Fátima. First we had a wonderful lunch with octopus, mussles, peppers, "empanada" and "tortilla de patatas" and then we went to the Hospital where we operated three cases.

This event had a lot of impact in the local press, we even received the visit of Spanish TV during the operations...

http://www.atlantico.net/noticia/45362/L%C3%A1serverde/F%C3%A1tima/

http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/362575/0/UNIDAD/laser/prostata/

http://www.soitu.es/soitu/2008/03/25/info/1206442082_608769.html

All the cases were successful and then I rushed back to Madrid. This time I did not get many good photos...