A presentation based on a new way of investigating prostate cancer using MRI won best paper award at the Midlands Urology Club annual meeting at Old Hall, Sutton Coldfield in October 2011. This new pathway for diagnosing prostate cancer in difficult cases has been devised by our surgeons over the last couple of years. Encouraging results, and a good presentation by trainee Urologist Sam Grimsley, led to the judges awarding the work the top prize.

The team were also selected to present their experience of Keyhole removal of part of the kidney (partial nephrectomy), which is a very demanding operation, and one that only a handful of major centres in the United Kingdom regularly perform. The results of this surgery were warmly received and applauded.

On 11th October the Staffordshire Urology group held a GP education evening at the North Staffordshire Nuffield Hospital. Christopher Luscombe gave a lecture on testicular swellings, including cancer, followed by prostate cancer, with particular reference to PSA and screening. Lyndon Gommersall talked on the subject of erectile dysfunction and Samson Liu then chaired a lively “ask the expert” session. It is hoped that this will become a regular event.

On 29th September Christopher Luscombe attended a Men’s Health meeting at the village hall at Madeley. Over 50 patients attended this event to listen to a lecture on subjects such as prostate enlargement and cancer, testicular swellings and erectile dysfunction. Afterwards there was a lively questions and answers session.

Mr Golash and Mr Luscombe are amongst several authors that publish an article in the respected Journal of Endourology. The article entitled “An objective scoring system for laparoscopic nephrectomy” was published in the September 2011 edition of the Journal (pages 1497-502). It discusses a scoring system for assessing trainee surgeon’s surgical skills when learning keyhole kidney surgery.

Mr Gommersall delivered an informative talk to the Moorlands Cancer Support Group in Cheadle on 19th November 2011. This meeting was well attended and the interesting presentation provoked many questions.
Mr Gommersall talked widely about the excellent bladder cancer services available locally, and showed videos on photodynamic diagnosis and keyhole bladder removal. The central focus of Mr Gommersall’s patient care is to give patient information to enhance the patients understanding throughout their cancer journey.
The key message was that if blood is seen in the urine, medical advice should be sought from the GP and a referral to hospital should be made for further investigations, so that the possibility of bladder cancer can be investigated.

Anurag Golash presented his results of ground breaking surgery for polycystic kidney disease to a meeting of renal (kidney) Doctors. Over 100 delegates were enthralled by his presentation including videos, about removing enormously swollen polycystic kidneys, by keyhole surgery. He believes that he is one of only a handful of surgeons worldwide that offer this surgery, with only one other unit in the UK. This procedure offers major surgery that usually requires a very large incision (with all the complications and long recovery associated with such an incision) with the advantages of small skin incisions and much more rapid recovery. The procedure seems to be safe and, he believes, should be considered for all patients requiring this surgery.