Journal Reviews
Developing and validating a new nomogram for diagnosing BOO in women
Bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) in women is thought to be present in between 2.7% and 27%. Causes of BOO in women may be anatomical or functional. Yet, unlike the diagnosis in men, there is no standard definition for BOO in...
Psychosocial and sexual outcomes after surgery for proximal hypospadias
Andersson et al. report the psychosocial and sexual outcomes for adolescents treated previously for proximal hypospadias. They hypothesised outcomes would be negatively affected compared to patients with distal hypospadias or age-matched controls (Swedish population registry). Participants answered a web-based questionnaire...
Urinary tract infections and antibiotics – the debate goes on
A large number of hospital patients and primary care patients suffer from recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI) and urosepsis. Some of these patients end up in intensive care units with multi-organ failure. New draft guidance from the National Institute for...
Beware of the ambiguous testicular lump
In busy day-to-day practice, we are often faced with puzzling situations. A useful mnemonic is 4-T: torsion, trauma, tumour and tuberculosis (infections). This case review in the BMJ is about a 34-year-old man presenting to A&E with left testicular pain...
Patterns of relapse and implications for post-nephrectomy surveillance in patients with high-risk NCC-RCC
The natural history of non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma (NCC-RCC) post-nephrectomy with curative intent remains poorly defined. The surveillance protocols are largely dependent on guidelines followed for clear cell RCC (CC-RCC). In this study, the authors evaluated the relapse patterns...
Convective radiofrequency water vapour thermal therapy for BPH
There are a number of new treatments for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) on the market. This paper reports retrospective data for 129 patients treated with convective radiofrequency water vapour thermal therapy (Rezum) by a single surgeon. There is variable length...
Incidence and risk factors of suicide after a prostate cancer diagnosis
This is an observational study looking at 1,281,393 men diagnosed with prostate cancer and 842,294 matched prostate cancer-free men. There was an overall increased relative risk of suicide of 2.01 in men diagnosed with prostate cancer compared to those without,...
Post prostatectomy outcomes of patients with high-risk prostate cancer treated with neoadjuvant androgen blockade
This is an interesting paper reporting on the use of neoadjuvant androgen blockage in patients with high-risk prostate cancer undergoing radical prostatectomy. Previous work in the literature has shown an improvement in the rate of organ-confined disease and decreased positive...
The natural history of prostate cancer on MRI
Multiparametric MRI features heavily on a number of active surveillance protocols. This study looked at 86 men on active surveillance who had an mpMRI prior to 2013 to assess how lesions changed over time. Two blinded radiologists examined all the...
Ipsilateral ureteroureterostomy: does function of the obstructed moiety matter?
Upper pole nephrectomy has been the traditional surgical management of children with poorly functioning upper pole moieties in duplex renal collecting systems having ureteral ectopia and ureterocele. However, ablative surgery confers a risk of functional loss to the remnant moiety...
Is routine renal tumour biopsy associated with lower rates of benign histology following nephrectomy for small renal masses?
There has been a considerable increase in the detection of small renal masses (SRM). Approximately 20% of these turn out to be benign lesions on final histopathological analysis. Therefore upfront surgery can be overtreatment in such a group of patients....
Comparing treatment modalities for transplant kidney VUR in the paediatric population
The management of Transplant kidney vesicoureteral reflux in the paediatric population is a heavily debated issue and Deflux® injection to manage VUR is both widely described in the literature and commonly practised. In this paper, these authors have put forth...
