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ICS updates on continence care: making sense of detrusor underactivity and the underactive bladder

Countless epidemiological studies have established the frequent occurrence of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and the significant burden these symptoms incur. For the most part of the past three decades, there has been an overwhelming focus on detrusor overactivity (DO)...

Ejaculatory dysfunction: a review of current practice and guidelines

Introduction The ejaculatory process is paramount to procreation in nature. It is a complex orchestration of physiology that results in emission of the ejaculate into the posterior urethra followed by ejection of those fluids from the urethra and orgasm. The...

History of prostate biopsy – part 2

For Part 1 of this topic is available here. The major limitations of the transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided prostate biopsy (PBx) protocols are the risk of profound sepsis and the risk of persistently significant false negative rates, related to the...

Endoscopic management of upper tract urothelial carcinoma

Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a rare disease accounting for 5-10% of all urothelial carcinomas and has an annual incidence in Western countries of 1-2 per 100,000 [1,2]. It occurs more commonly in the pelvicalyceal system as opposed to...

Guide to gaining approval for a clinical study

This article focuses on gaining approval for clinical research involving NHS patients, although the principles can be applied to other types of research. It can be quite a daunting process for the uninitiated applicant. Often it can be made less...

Inpatient care of patients with established spinal cord injury - what a general urologist needs to know

Introduction Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating, life-changing condition, which is currently irreversible. Depending on the level of the spinal cord affected (and whether the lesion is complete or incomplete), patients may subsequently develop reduced voluntary motor function, sensory...

Ketamine uropathy – an update

The first two case series that documented the association between urinary tract damage and recreational ketamine use were published 12 years ago [1,2]. Since then ketamine has maintained a controversial profile as an essential medication of expanding utility but with...

Trials offering cytoreductive surgery for men with de novo synchronous metastatic prostate cancer

Life expectancy in men diagnosed with de novo synchronous metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC) has risen to a median of 4.8 years with upfront systemic agents (such as docetaxel) in addition to standard androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) [1-3]. Within this...

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...

Prostate artery embolisation

Introduction Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a common condition associated with ageing, affects 50% of those between the ages of 50 and 60 years, and as many as 90% of those older than 80 years. BPH is characterised by unregulated, benign...

Neuromodulation for lower urinary tract dysfunction – an ICS update

Non-invasive and invasive electro-stimulation techniques have been extensively studied in the treatment of lower urinary tract and bowel dysfunction, including overactive bladder syndrome (OAB), non-obstructive chronic urinary retention, faecal incontinence and chronic pelvic pain. Currently, the most common indication for...

Intravesical GAG replacement therapies for bladder pain syndrome / interstitial cystitis – an update

The barrier function of the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) layer of the urothelium was identified by Parsons in 1975, and intravesical therapies to treat chronic inflammatory conditions of the bladder were developed soon after. However, the active role of the urothelium in...