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All you need to know about percutaneous nephrolithotomy: supine versus prone and mini versus traditional

Introduction Since the first percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), the technique has undergone many innovations, including modifications in positioning, miniaturisation of instruments and combination with retrograde intra-renal surgery (see Table 1 for an outline of the history of the technique). Controversy has...

PREDICT Prostate – individualised, evidence-based estimates of survival and treatment benefit

Earlier this year ‘PREDICT Prostate’ was launched online alongside a high-profile publication in PLOS Medicine. The prognostic model and decision-aid has been designed to inform treatment decision-making among men newly diagnosed with non-metastatic prostate cancer. David Thurtle and Vincent Gnanapragasam...

Ambulatory local anaesthetic implantation of percutaneous sacral nerve stimulators

Background The current treatment paradigm for detrusor overactivity (DO) and dysfunctional voiding (DV) includes conservative measures, pharmacotherapy, intravesical onabotulinum toxin A (Botox®), sacral nerve modulation (SNM / SNS) and urinary diversion as a last resort [1]. Incidence of DO is...

Metabolic screening and stone-prevention in urolithiasis patients

The incidence and prevalence of kidney stones is increasing [1,2]. Significant recurrence rates are noted with 14% of patients experiencing a further episode at one year, 35% at five years, and 52% at 10 years [3]. Over 10% of stone...

Management of recurrent cystitis

Acute uncomplicated infective cystitis is most commonly seen in healthy women with a frequency of around 0.5-0.7 episodes per woman per year [1]. Around 10% of women report having had an episode of urinary tract infection (UTI) each year and...

Immunotherapy in renal cancer

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the sixth most common solid organ cancer in the UK. In 2018, there were 403,262 people diagnosed worldwide with the disease (2.2% of all cancer cases), and it accounted for 175,098 deaths in total (1.8%...

Cutting-edge or over-hyped? Evaluating the role of robotic surgery in the management of renal cell carcinoma

The quest for a minimally-invasive approach to major abdominal surgery finds its roots at the start of the previous century, when Georg Kelling first described the technique of ‘ceolioscopy’ to inspect intraabdominal organs in 1901 [1]. Since those early days,...