“Less invasive urological surgery to save organs”

2023-10-06 19:49:00

“The main innovations of the congress concern surgical techniques which are aimed at being less invasive not only in the approach, with laparoscopy and robotic surgery, but also inside the patient. In the oncology field we try to obtain the same results” of effectiveness, “preserving the organs as much as possible, such as the kidney, or the cavernous nerves, in radical prostatectomy. We therefore have patients who can recover from prostate cancer while still being powerful and continent. This also happens in benign pathology. Let’s think about therapy for kidney or ureteral stones. Once upon a time the scalpel was needed. Today it is solved with small miniaturized instruments that enter through the natural orifices, reach the stones and destroy them.” Vincenzo Ficarra, head of the scientific office of the Italian Society of Urology, said this to time.news, presenting the 96th annual Congress of the Italian Society of Urology (SIU) scheduled in Rome from 7 to 9 October.

“This edition of the national congress – continues Ficarra – is different from the others because it looks at international urology with very high level guests who consolidate the SIU’s collaboration with leading scientific societies such as the American, European and international urology societies. This is very important because Italian urology is of the highest level and we need to always compare ourselves with the best in order to grow, improve and offer patients the best results both in the surgical field and in the field of medical therapy, with which today we can cure many pathologies.”

Regarding waiting lists, the specialist underlines that “they constitute a significant problem because urology is aimed in particular at people of a certain age who use hospitals for various reasons. Covid obviously didn’t help us – recalls Ficarra – We managed to deal with oncological pathologies, but we were very compromised in benign pathologies”, but there is “an important project (waiting for) for waiting lists” in urology. It serves to “identify individual patients to include them taking into account not only oncological problems, but also factors such as age, the greater severity of some pathologies, even in the benign context, to give priority to those with more serious problems overall. We should break the mold of band AB or C – suggests Ficarra – and distinguish the most urgent pathologies from the less urgent ones in the individual bands. Paradoxically, there are patients with tumors with a favorable trend who could wait a longer time than what the legislator says and with benign forms which instead should be inserted earlier – he concludes – to reduce serious risks such as the loss of a kidney or other serious problems ”.