Journal Reviews
Urinary diversion and infections
This article will be of interest to colleagues undertaking reconstructive surgery. Urinary diversions have been performed for decades. Common indications are muscle-invasive bladder cancer, neurological disorders, inflammatory conditions and congenital malformation. The diversions could be continent or non-continent. Complications due...
Vitamin D and LUTS
Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and vitamin D deficiency have been thought to be connected, but the association has been inconsistent. Vitamin D receptors have been identified in the bladder, prostate and pelvic floor muscles, and it has been linked...
Onabotulinum toxin A (BTX) not helpful for chronic scrotal pain
It is refreshing to read a report on negative outcomes as it reinforces the honesty that is often lacking with the well-known publication bias in medical publications. It is also not common to come across surgical randomised controlled trials (RCTs)...
Prostatic artery embolisation versus sham
Randomised trials with use of sham is uncommon in the surgical literature, which makes this paper more interesting. Many different treatments are available for treating lower urinary tract symptoms / benign prostatic hyperplasia (LUTS / BPH). Prostatic artery embolisation (PAE)...
Chronic retention – all you need to know
Chronic retention – all you need to know Chronic urinary retention is a common presentation in elderly and frail patients. Two types should be recognised - low pressure chronic retention (LPCR) and high pressure chronic retention (HPCR). Acute-on-chronic retention occurs...
Prostatic urethral lift for obstructive median lobes: 12-month results of the MedLift study
As the various new BPH therapies try and mark out their role in the management of the condition, this is an interesting and useful addition to the literature. Patients were clinically screened for an obstructive median lobe on cystoscopy, which...
Early complications following ambulatory hypospadias repair
Most hypospadias repairs are undertaken on a day case ambulatory basis. Roth et al. have studied clinically significant events occurring within 30 days of operation. Data was obtained from the Paediatric Health Information System (PHIS), an administrative database that contains...
Urinary tract infections and antibiotics – the debate goes on
A large number of hospital patients and primary care patients suffer from recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI) and urosepsis. Some of these patients end up in intensive care units with multi-organ failure. New draft guidance from the National Institute for...
Beware of the ambiguous testicular lump
In busy day-to-day practice, we are often faced with puzzling situations. A useful mnemonic is 4-T: torsion, trauma, tumour and tuberculosis (infections). This case review in the BMJ is about a 34-year-old man presenting to A&E with left testicular pain...
Convective radiofrequency water vapour thermal therapy for BPH
There are a number of new treatments for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) on the market. This paper reports retrospective data for 129 patients treated with convective radiofrequency water vapour thermal therapy (Rezum) by a single surgeon. There is variable length...
Ipsilateral ureteroureterostomy: does function of the obstructed moiety matter?
Upper pole nephrectomy has been the traditional surgical management of children with poorly functioning upper pole moieties in duplex renal collecting systems having ureteral ectopia and ureterocele. However, ablative surgery confers a risk of functional loss to the remnant moiety...
Comparing treatment modalities for transplant kidney VUR in the paediatric population
The management of Transplant kidney vesicoureteral reflux in the paediatric population is a heavily debated issue and Deflux® injection to manage VUR is both widely described in the literature and commonly practised. In this paper, these authors have put forth...
