(UroToday.com) On the third day of the annual World Congress of Endourology and Technology 2024, the fourth plenary session entitled “Stone Disease and Treatment” included an expert panel on new approaches for stone retrieval. This session was moderated by Paksi Satyagraha, MD of Saiful Anwar General Hospital, Indonesia, with panelists including: Han Kyu Chae, MD, PhD of Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital in Seoul, Republic of Korea, Sundaram Palaniappan, MD of Sengkang General Hospital, Singapore, Joseph C. Liao, MD of Stanford Medicine, and Steffi Yuen, MD of New Territories East Cluster Hospitals, Hong Kong.

(UroToday.com) The 2024 World Congress of Endourology and Uro-Technology Conference in Seoul, Korea, continued its tradition of delivering cutting-edge educational sessions with Wednesday afternoon’s SURS plenary, which focused on the topic of managing complications during robotic surgery. The session was led by Dr. Rene Sotelo, who emphasized the importance of reviewing surgical complications as a means of continuous improvement and enhancing patient outcomes.

(UroToday.com) In his engaging and insightful presentation, Dr. Richard Link, humorously referring to himself as a "reinvented transperitoneal curmudgeon," took the audience on a journey through the evolution of surgical techniques in urology, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and innovation in the field.

(UroToday.com) At the WCET 2024 conference, Dr. Steffi Kar Kei Yuen from the SH Ho Urology Centre at The Chinese University of Hong Kong presented significant findings from a multi-center study on the stone-free rate (SFR) and complications following flexible ureteroscopy (F-URS) for renal stones using the flexible and navigable suction ureteral access sheath (FANS). This large-scale study, conducted across 25 centers worldwide, represents one of the most extensive prospective analyses in the field, offering critical insights into the efficacy and safety of suction UAS during flexible ureteroscopy.

(UroToday.com) In the Laparoscopic and Robotic New Technology Moderated poster session of the 2024 WCET, Dr. Aideen Madden presented her research on the initial learning curve associated with the Ily robotics system for flexible ureteroscopy. The study aimed to explore whether prior video gaming experience (VGE) influenced the learning curve when using the robotic system.

(UroToday.com) The fifth plenary session of the World Congress of Endourology and Technology 2024 Annual Meeting featured a panel moderated by Dr. Taek-Sang Kim of Yale Medicine entitled “Techniques of Robotic Simple Prostatectomy”, showcasing three different robotic approaches to simple prostatectomy. Panelists for this session included three expert robotic prostate surgeons: Dr. David I. Lee, MD, FACS of the University of California, Irvine, California, Dr. Benjamin Waldorf, MD of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Dr. Mutahar Ahmed, MD, FACS of Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey, USA.

(UroToday.com) The 2024 World Congress of Endourology and Uro-Technology Conference in Seoul, Korea, continued its Wednesday afternoon plenary session, with a discussion on optimizing stone treatment. Moderated by Dr. Michelle Jo Semins, the session brought together leading experts to discuss different laser modalities.

(UroToday.com) The first speaker, Dr. Inderbir Gill, delivered a thought-provoking presentation on the potential of bladder transplantation—a frontier in urology that has yet to be explored in human patients. Dr. Gill began by highlighting the success of transplantation as a treatment for failing major organ systems, such as kidneys, livers, and hearts, as well as non-critical organs like faces, hands, and even penises.

(UroToday.com) During the inaugural plenary session on the first day of the 2024 WCET Meeting, Dr. Lui Shong Lee, MBBS, MRCS, FAMS, moderated a panel discussion regarding multi and single-port robotic platforms. Among the panelists, Dr. Benjamin I Chung, MD, Dr. Ken-ichi Tabata, and Dr. Sung-Hoo Hong, MD, PhD provided insight into this thought-provoking discussion.

(UroToday.com) In the moderated poster session for “Stone – Ureteroscopy 2,” Dr. Mitchell R. Humphreys (Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, Arizona) presented his team’s observations on the impact of laser settings for nephrolithiasis specifically using the Thulium fiber laser (TFL). They analyzed data from 8 centers from 12/2021 -4/2023 using prospective data from an international registry.

(UroToday.com) Dr. Benjamin Eilender from UT Southwestern presented an innovative treatment pathway for men with prostate cancer and significant prostate enlargement at the latest medical conference.

(UroToday.com) The second plenary session on the first day of the WCET 2024 Conference was initiated with a moderated panel session by Dr. Andrew J. Hung, MD, on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) in urologic surgery. This included a comprehensive panel of urologists including Dr. Timothy C. Chang, MD of Stanford Urology, Dr. Ahmed Ghazi, MD, FEBU, MHPE of Johns Hopkins, Dr. Russell Terry Jr., MD of UF Health, and Dr. Bhaskar Somani, MRCS, FEBU, FRCS (Urol) of the University of Southampton.

(UroToday.com) Tuesday morning's plenary session at the 2024 World Congress of Endourology and Uro-Technology Conference ignited a compelling debate on whether open surgery training is essential in an era dominated by robotic surgical techniques.

(UroToday.com) Tuesday afternoon’s plenary session during the 2024 World Congress of Endourology and Uro-Technology Conference in Seoul, Korea featured an insightful lecture by Dr. Thomas Ahlering, MD, on the role of adjuvant and salvage radiation therapy in the management of prostate cancer.

(UroToday.com) At the WCET 2024 conference in Seoul, Dr. Thomas Ahlering from the University of California, Irvine, presented a groundbreaking study that challenges the conventional understanding of positive surgical margins (PSMs) following radical prostatectomy (RP).

(UroToday.com) At the WCET 2024 conference in Seoul, Dr. Nicolas Soputro from the Department of Urology at the Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute, Cleveland Clinic, presented a significant study focused on developing a patient-specific algorithm to enhance clinical decision-making in robotic partial nephrectomy (RPN). This research addresses the comparative utility of Single Port (SP) versus Multi Port (MP) robotic approaches, with the goal of improving the selection process and optimizing surgical outcomes.

(UroToday.com) At the WCET 2024 conference in Seoul, Dr. Mohammad Mohsen Mazloumfard from the Department of Internal Medicine at Modarres Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, presented an insightful study comparing two surgical techniques for the treatment of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC): Holmium Laser Resection of Bladder Tumor (HoLRBT) and the traditional Transurethral Resection of Bladder Tumor (TURBT). The research aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of HoLRBT as a potential alternative to the more commonly used TURBT procedure.

(UroToday.com) On the inaugural day of the WCET 2024 Annual Meeting in Seoul, South Korea, the first moderated poster session of the basic science abstracts was initiated with Dr. Aaron Miller, PhD of the Cleveland Clinic with an insightful study analyzing the prostate microbiome in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients.

(UroToday.com) At the WCET 2024 conference in Seoul, Dr. Robert Medairos from the Department of Urology at Duke University Medical Center presented a study that investigates the potential for thermal injury during the use of the thulium fiber laser (TFL) in stone dusting procedures. The increasing popularity of TFL for stone dusting aims to minimize or eliminate the need for fragment extraction. However, concerns have been raised regarding the possibility of thermal injury to the urothelium due to the TFL's high water absorption properties.

(UroToday.com) To kick off the first day of the conference, Western University's Jennifer Bjazevic presented a significant advancement in the preoperative management of urolithiasis to tackle a critical issue in the treatment of kidney stones: determining the stone's composition before it is passed or surgically removed. This is essential because treatment strategies for urolithiasis are heavily dependent on the stone’s composition (i.e., calcium or non-calcium elements).