Blogs@BJUI

Advances in surgical technology have revolutionized the way surgery is performed today. Conventional laparoscopic surgery dominated the surgical paradigm for several decades, until robot-assisted surgery created the next giant leap. In the pressent article, Elhage et al. [1] compare and correlate physical stress and surgical performances among three modes of a standardized surgical step. Their study shows the obvious physical strain and technical limitations faced while performing conventional…

I was first introduced to Vine by my good friend Dr Fernando Gomez Sancha over a very enjoyable dinner in Milan during the European Association of Urology meeting in March 2013.  I thought that the concept was interesting and signed up on the spot. Vine is a relatively new social media platform that allows users to create and share 6 second videos loops.  It brings out amazing creativity with the very restrictive maximum 6 second video duration. It is not dissimilar to the Twitter where users…

The use of social media continues to expand in urology and the BJUI is proud to be at the forefront of these efforts. All of the global urology meetings now have their own twitter feed, which is indexed using a ‘hashtag’ (e.g. #EAU14, #AUA14). Analogous to a Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) in PubMed, hashtags are used to categorise related tweets together in one place, providing a convenient way to follow conference proceedings. Surrounding the 2014 European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress…

With the expansion in laser technology for treating symptomatic BPH, there are now two main techniques available to the budding urologist. Yet the management of chronic urinary retention (CUR) remains a significant challenge. In this issue of BJUI Jaeger et al. [1]present a retrospective study comparing holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) and photoselective vaporization of the prostate (PVP; using XPS 180 watt and HPS 120 watt systems) in the treatment of CUR. Both HoLEP and…

Although not a Country Music fanatic, I would like to acknowledge the contribution that Kenny Rogers, elder statesman of the genre, has made to the practice of modern surgery. I refer to his insightful song, and subsequent film, The Gambler. For the uninitiated, the song describes a chance meeting between a world-weary professional card player and an aspiring young gambler. If you are gambling lover then you may know Bitbola is a sbobet88 Mobile Indonesia site that provides a variety of online gambling…

Enzalutamide is approved in the post-docetaxel phase for men with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) in North America (NA) and the European Union (EU). Merseburger et al. [1] now take a first look at comparing the efficacy and safety of enzalutamide in EU and NA patients treated in the AFFIRM trial. AFFIRM was a phase III double-blind, placebo-controlled multinational trial evaluating whether enzalutamide prolongs overall survival (OS) in men with mCRPC after docetaxel chemotherapy.…

A version of this blog has also been published on the Trends in Urology and Men’s Health site We have just completed a superb RSM winter meeting on the East African 'Spice Island' of Zanzibar. In addition to exciting updates in urological practice within the UK, the president of Zanzibar attended the meeting to give a fascinating insight into the history, problems and challenges facing Zanzibar. However it was our interaction with local healthcare professionals during our visits to the…

The #RadOnc Journal Club continued its success in Movember with over 700 tweets from 60 participants in a three-day discussion on smoking and prostate cancer radiation treatment outcomes. Thanks to the generosity of the BJUI (@BJUIJournal) and Prof. Prokar Dasgupta (@prokarurol), the study of a large retrospective cohort of localized prostate cancer patients who received external beam radiation treatment from Memorial Sloan Kettering (@sloan _kettering) was open-access and engaged a wide audience. Background…

Peer review is a critical part of the publishing process for any major journal and BJUI is no exception. We are fortunate to have a large and dedicated team of expert reviewers who give up their time and energy to help us bring you the best articles in the field. In 2014, BJUI used 2059 different peer reviewers and we are extremely grateful to them all for their time and expertise. The reviewers listed below are the most prolific and fastest of our 2014 reviewers and are our "Top Reviewers"…