The Museum of Urology at BAUS History Display is back! Whilst the BAUS annual meeting was held in Birmingham it had not been possible to put on the display of instruments and artefacts, which had previously been a fixture at BAUS for several years.
Last year a small cabinet was hosted on the Urology News stand, it was very popular and attracted very positive feedback (and incidentally Urology News won a BAUS award for their display!).
This year at BAUS London 2026 the old-style Museum stand will be back. Integrated into a seating area with comfortable chairs and tables it will be a great place to meet, catch up, rest your legs but also learn a little about the history of urology as you top up your caffeine levels.
The History Display at BAUS 2019 in Glasgow.
2026 sees 100 years of the TURP; first introduced in America in 1926 by Maximillian Stern. So, a large part of the display will reflect that history and tell that story. There will be antique resectoscopes of many historical designs from before and after the introduction of the Hopkins rod lens. Although TURP was slow to be accepted in Britain there were pioneers of minimally invasive endourology who championed this American invention. Before the Second World War, Canny Ryall (who founded All Saints, an endourology hospital), Terence Millin (known more for his open operation), Kenneth Walker and Ronald Ogier Ward (BAUS’s first president) all tried and promoted the TURP. It was a major topic of discussion at the Urology Section meetings of the Royal Society of Medicine. In 1932, Clyde Collings came over from New York to show the RSM his Colling’s Knife. However, TURP didn’t really take off in this country until the late 20th century with John Blandy, of The London, publishing his classic book on Transurethral Resection in 1971.
The Museum of Urology History Display at BAUS London 2026 will be sponsored by Karl Storz UK, a company closely associated with the history of endoscopy. I’m looking forward to bringing the History Display back to BAUS this year and to seeing you all there.
