The main advances in urology in recent years have been due to the important evolution of laparoscopic surgery. This has significantly improved the treatment of all urological diseases requiring surgery. At the same time, laser technology has now allowed us to improve the treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy and superficial bladder tumors, mainly.
In other words, all patients with pathologies that require surgical intervention will benefit from the great progress that laparoscopic and/or laser surgery has made in recent years. Going into more detail, laparoscopic surgery makes more perfect -for the doctor and for the patient- interventions such as: the removal of the adrenal gland, of part or all of the kidney -either for a transplant or not-, of the entire bladder (cystectomy) and of the prostate due to a tumor, as well as the correction of a varicocele, etc. Practically we would be talking about almost any surgical pathology in urology.
The benefits of urological laparoscopy
Beyond the diseases for which laparoscopic surgery can be used, important aspects such as the incision have been improved. Today’s incisions are minimal, are the size of the diameter of a fountain pen, and are only enlarged discreetly to extract the part to the outside. It should be clarified that the incisions are made in the navel and on the sides of the abdomen, but they are practically unnoticeable afterwards.
The fact that the incisions are so small makes the postoperative period very comfortable and painless, even significantly shortening the stay in the clinic and greatly reducing complications, for example in terms of wound infection.
Video cameras
And if we are talking about advances, we cannot ignore the advantage of the video cameras that we use for operations nowadays. These are high-definition cameras, which are attached to the trocar that was inserted through the umbilicus. They give an unbeatable image quality, allow perfect control of even the smallest blood vessels and, therefore, it is very rare to need a blood transfusion. In addition, they allow the operation to be recorded and given to patients so that they can watch it later on a USB flash drive.
All these advantages have a beneficial effect on patients, who are increasingly better informed and know that thanks to the advances in this surgery they will spend much less time in hospital and will have much less discomfort.