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The scent of Ethiopia: a personal story – part 1

Background The year was 2004; I had just moved to the UK as a young house officer and finished my observership programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. I was inspired by greats like Patrick Duffy and Phillip Ransley,...

The role of transperineal template biopsies in the diagnosis of prostate cancer

The case In 2002, Mr A, a 64-year-old software engineer, was referred by his GP for further investigation of a raised prostate specific antigen (PSA) of 6.2. His prostate felt benign. He underwent transrectal ultrasound guided (TRUS) prostate biopsies. This...

Frailty in urology – part 2

The first article in this series defined frailty and introduced the concept and importance of identifying patients living with frailty who undergo surgery, including those undergoing urological procedures. In the second part of this series we outline how to identify...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

Urological etymology

In this series of articles I am going to show you some of the exhibits contained in the Museum of Urology, hosted on the BAUS website (www.baus.org.uk). I’ve always found the derivation of names fascinating. Anatomy lessons were made so...

The best stone man north of the border

In this series of articles I am going to show you some of the exhibits contained in the Museum of Urology, hosted on the BAUS website (www.baus.org.uk). In 1860, Sir Henry Thompson (1820–1904), the famous 19th century English surgeon and...

OCERT: a new multi-specialty project to standardise robotic surgical training

Since its introduction by Dr William Osler in 1890 to the Board of Trustees at John Hopkins Hospital [1], the Halstedian ‘See one, do one, teach one’ has represented a guideline for surgeons worldwide, both for open and laparoscopic surgery,...

Management of lower urinary tract foreign bodies

Of all the urological emergencies presenting to the emergency department, perhaps one of the most technically challenging cases is the patient with a foreign body in the genitourinary (GU) tract. A wide variety of GU foreign bodies have been reported...