Journal Reviews
BPH therapy: how to find one’s way through the maze?
This communication is from the Young Academic Urologists (YAU) group of the European Association of Urologists (EAU). A purpose-built questionnaire of current practice was sent to 2000 members, of which 637 responded (68% were aged 50 or younger). Alpha blockers...
Screening tool for incontinence: Michigan index
The Michigan incontinence symptom index (MISI) is a validated measure. This study further evaluated its relevance. MISI is a 10-item measure; MISI domain 1-8 and bother domain 9-10. Two hundred and fourteen women were included in the study, with a...
BPS – a diagnostic enigma
This article from a London teaching hospital presents the results of a Medline search about challenges in bladder pain syndrome. All the known definitions from the American Urological Association (AUA), European Association of Urology (EAU), etc. are given while the...
CROWN initiative – what is it about?
The editors of around 50 journals related to women’s health have joined forces to support the CROWN initiative (core outcomes in women’s health). The aim is to standardise the collection of outcomes for all trials in a specific dataset in...
RARP – novel uroflow stop test
More and more centres are doing robotic assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) surgery for cancer of the prostate .This study from Montreal, Canada describes a simple and novel test to predict recovery of urinary continence after RARP. The uroflow stop test...
PFMT in males
Pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) has been described since ancient times in Rome but Kegel popularised it to improve sexual and urinary health after childbirth. In the paediatric population, there is a paradigm shift towards biofeedback-based PFMT for lower urinary...
Near-infrared fluorescence in robotic surgery
This is a systematic review and critical analysis of the current evidence on the applications of near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) in robotic urologic surgery. It uses indocyanine green (ICG), a sterile water-soluble dye which has been tested in various fields. In...
Paediatric chronic orchalgia
Testicular or scrotal / groin pain is common in children and often there is no apparent cause. This paper describes the authors’ experience over 10 years of boys >10 years seeking medical attention with testicular pain without anatomical abnormality or...
Buccal grafts for urethroplasty in pre-pubertal boys
Buccal mucosa graft (BMG) is often used as the primary graft in complex hypospadias surgery. It is not clear what the response of this BMG is during puberty androgen surge and whether or not differential penile growth occurs with secondary...
Prostate alpha-1 receptors: what is new?
This article from the west of Germany will be of interest to many of us who use alpha-blockers for bladder outflow symptoms. The classic model of understanding of alpha receptors has been challenged recently. Further models have been identified, including...
IC and risk of CHD
Bladder pain syndrome / interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is a chronic, multifactorial and relapsing condition. Aetiology includes: inflammation, allergic, neuropathic, auto immune, vascular factors, etc. This study from Taiwan aimed to investigate the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) among IC...
Impact of prostatic apex in continence after RARP
This article investigates the impact of prostatic apical shape from preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on early recovery of urinary continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP). It is a retrospective study of 1011 patients at a tertiary centre. Patients were...
