Features
The scent of Ethiopia: a personal story part 2
In May/June 2016 we featured a wonderful account of Zeeshan Aslam’s first trip with Urolink to the Hawassa Referral Hospital in Ethiopia (see here). One year on we are delighted that Zeeshan has once again taken the time to provide...
Intravesical glycosaminoglycan analogue instillations for recurrent cystitis
Introduction The symptoms of recurrent cystitis can be triggered by inflammatory or infective causes. Bladder pain syndrome (BPS) and bacterial recurrent lower urinary tract infection can both present with symptoms of recurrent cystitis and cause significant morbidity in affected individuals....
Nocturnal enuresis in children
Introduction Nocturnal enuresis is the complaint of bedwetting. The 2010 National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines define bedwetting as the “involuntary wetting during sleep without any inherent suggestion of frequency of bedwetting or pathophysiology” [1]. Bedwetting is...
ICS updates in continence care: a personal perspective on the role of basic science in urology
At a urology research meeting in Sheffield a few years ago, a former post doctorate researcher in urology, Mathieu Boudes, said: “Stop calling it basic research, there is nothing basic about it. It is fundamental research to everything urologists do.”...
Consent: your obligations in the modern, post-Montgomery era
There has been so much recent discussion and so much emphasis placed on the fundamental right that we all have to determine what is or is not done to us, the right to self-determination, that it would be either a...
Surgical treatment of LUTS secondary to BPH
For the vast majority of patients an initial trial of medical therapy for the management of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is indicated [1]. In a substantial minority of cases however, a surgical intervention...
What’s new in post prostatectomy incontinence?
With an ageing population, the number of men being diagnosed with prostate cancer each year is steadily rising. With more specific investigations, such as multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MpMRI) and transperineal biopsies, the number of cases diagnosed at an earlier...
An overview of daytime wetting in children
It is estimated that daytime wetting affects one in seventy-five children over the age of five years [1]. Daytime wetting is commoner in younger children (1 in 7 aged 4.5 years, 1 in 20 aged 9.5 years) [1]. Many younger...
An introduction to research governance
Research is the process of acquiring new generalisable knowledge and should be fully integrated into healthcare work. There is a growing drive to encourage and further develop evidence-based practice in medicine so that staff and patients benefit from improved healthcare...
The assessment and medical treatment of LUTS secondary to BPH
The term benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) describes prostate enlargement due to non-cancerous processes. Several aetiological mechanisms are involved, including hormonal and vascular alterations; abnormal regulation of apoptosis; and prostatic inflammation, which may stimulate cellular proliferation. With ageing, prostate enlargement can...
ICS updates in continence care: the role of the nurse continence specialist in continence services
The nurse who specialises in continence care is recognised as a key member of interdisciplinary teams seeking to deliver high quality integrated continence services. The recently published international service specifications for continence care [1] supports the use of specialist continence...
The surgical trainer – are we still evolving?
“We need a system and we will surely have it – which will produce not only surgeons, but surgeons of the highest type” William Halsted MD William Halsted, a famous American surgeon, is widely credited with developing the first formal...