Readmission rates in postoperative patients are an important health economic and clinical challenge faced in the modern NHS, with financial levies attached. In America since 2013, hospitals have been faced with ‘readmission penalties’ deducted from Medicare reimbursements. This was the...
There are standard guidelines for first transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) guided biopsy in a patient presenting with elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) or suspicious digital rectal examination (DRE) findings. Patients are generally warned before a TRUS biopsy in respect of a false...
As carcinoma in situ (CIS) theoretically has no ability to invade or metastasise, performing radical cystectomy for CIS-only disease should be curative. In this single centre review over 37 years, 1964 patients undergoing cystectomy were analysed with 52 undergoing surgery...
This review article is worthy of reading in its entirety. It addresses current concepts in the management of one of the few paediatric urological emergencies. For every 100,000 males <25 years, 4.5 will have testicular torsion per year. Given that...
Alarm therapy (AT) is a first line-treatment for nocturnal enuresis (NE) conditioning the child to wake in response to an auditory stimulus when wetting begins. It is currently unclear whether waking children and guiding them to urinate when the alarm...
Since the 1980s patients with spinal dysraphism have had aggressive bladder management with clean intermittent catheterisation and anticholinergic therapy from early on in life. This strategy aims at improving lower and therefore upper urinary tract function thus decreasing the risk...
Nephron sparing surgery has become the standard surgical treatment for small renal masses (<4cm). Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) is shown to be superior to the open approach (OPN) in peri and postoperative morbidity; however, it requires advanced skills and has...
This paper is evidence of an increasing trend (especially in the USA) to lower the age at which hypospadias repair is undertaken. The current generalised best accepted age to repair hypospadias is between 6-18 months, which was reduced in the...
At present, I have one patient under my care who underwent prenatal closure of his spina bifida defect. Only with time, will we be able to determine whether this intervention has been of benefit for him from a urological standpoint....
US News & World Report (USNWR) provide rankings on a wide range of topics (education, health, money, travel, cars and law firms). In terms of healthcare, they suggest that their rankings (based on metrics) are a tool that can help...
Antenatal scanning detects urinary tract dilatation in 1-5% of pregnancies. Isolated hydronephrosis (i.e., that not due to secondary dilatation e.g. bladder dysfunction) is known to resolve or improve in most; some patients may, however, require intervention through deterioration of obstruction...
Undescended testes occur in 1-3% of newborns; the prevalence is even higher in premature babies. Traditionally the surgical approach has been inguinal orchidopexy, involving two incisions – inguinal and scrotal. In 1989, Bianchi and Squire proposed single scrotal incision orchidopexy...