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Cutting on the Staff

In this series of articles I am going to show you some of the exhibits contained in the BAUS Virtual Museum of the History of Urology which is part of the BAUS website (www.baus.org.uk). In the last article I described...

Reflections on 20 years as an Army Reserve doctor: live a life less ordinary

It seems a very short time ago that my predecessor recruited me into my regiment as a surgical senior house officer during a varicose vein operation in a cottage hospital in Stroud, informing me that I would be only the...

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...

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...

Nurse practitioner TRUS biopsy: training and preparation

As prostate cancer rates increase, many urology departments rely on multi-professional teams to diagnose and manage patients with prostate cancer. The aim of this article is to highlight the skills, training and preparation required for nurse practitioners to undertake trans-rectal...

Men with a susceptibility to prostate cancer: implications of ethnicity in PCa risk-prediction and diagnosis

The diagnostic and therapeutic landscapes of prostate cancer (PCa) have advanced at great pace in the past decade. However, disparities in access to care, clinical outcomes and representation in therapeutic, interventional and genomic studies continue to exist between Afro-Caribbean (AC)...

Mesh in urological surgery in the UK – background, reviews and current status

All UK urologists, unless they have been on a 10-year silent retreat, are by now aware of the controversy surrounding surgical use of mesh in general and urological / urogynaecological use of mesh for the surgical treatment of stress urinary...

Is laparoscopic urological training in Sub-Saharan Africa a goal worth pursuing? Observations from my experience with IVUmed in Senegal

Laparoscopic surgery has developed at an unimaginable pace over the last three decades. The first laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed by Dr Phillip Mouret in France in 1987, with the first series of 63 cases published in 1989 [1]. However, its...

Can dogs smell prostate cancer?

For centuries we have known that man’s best friend has an exceptional sense of smell. ‘Sniffer’ dogs are found in a wide range of roles, including drug and explosive detection as part of airport security, helping emergency services locate survivors...

Sustainable healthcare: what steps can urologists take?

Human health is intrinsically linked to environmental health, making the ever-pressing climate crisis fundamentally a public health emergency. The healthcare sector is responsible for 8% of the UK’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide [1]. As the largest publicly funded healthcare...