The Urology Unit at Hospiten Tenerife is specialized in working with less invasive techniques and with better functional results.
When dealing with any disease, there is no doubt that technological means are important when considering their influence on treatments. Advances in the field mean that treatment techniques have progressed to the point that today any natural orifice in the body can be used to carry out a surgical procedure.
Dr. Guillermo Conde Santos is in charge of minimally invasive techniques among the group of urologists at Hospiten Tenerife.
Our work philosophy is to practice excellence in urology, offering the latest technological advances, but based on the principles of evidence-based medicine.
Our principal mission is to be able to offer an integral urological service covering prevention, diagnosis and treatment – through close care, person to person, individualized treatment and contrasted, vanguard, technological excellence.
Through our daily work, we aim to make urology at Hospiten Tenerife a pioneering specialty enabling us to offer effective answers that provide the maximum therapeutic benefit and a reduction of the aggression of surgery.
Laparoscopy
Laparoscopy is a surgical technique with many advantages and through which surgery based on minimizing aggression towards the patient is practiced. Oncologic and functional results thus obtained are very good.
Our main field of work is urologic oncological surgery. We routinely use this type of surgery to treat cancer of the prostate, kidney and more advanced cancer of the bladder. Another advantage of laparoscopic surgery is the opportunity to rebuild the female pelvic floor in more advanced cases of prolapse.
Benefits of these techniques
Laparoscopy is a technique very much appreciated by both the doctor and the patient. Post-operative recovery is much faster so the patient gets over the procedure sooner. For the urologist, laparoscopy widens the scope of vision, which was much narrower in open surgery. In fact, we are talking about a scope of vision in which the not only surgeon can see what is happening, but in which the assistant, and the whole team, can take part in the procedure. As a direct result, other structures in the vicinity of the intervention, which were often damaged with open surgery, are less affected. To a great extent, a surgeon depends on the environment in which he finds himself and the instruments he has at hand are key to the work he does. Oncological surgery on the kidney, prostate and bladder can generally be approached with laparoscopic and endourological methods. Today, almost all oncological surgery is carried out via laparoscopy at our centers. In some, very reserved cases, open surgery is chosen, but only in exceptional cases.
Endourology
Endourology is a surgical technique that takes advantage of the body’s natural orifices, such as the urethra, to practice the intervention. With the aid of small instruments, a number of conditions can be dealt with in both the kidney and the bladder, without the need for an incision. Endourological techniques give very satisfactory results.
One of our most innovative jobs in this field is what is known as RIRS (retrograde intra-renal surgery), which allows the surgeon to enter the kidney from the urethra. Thanks to the latest generation of high definition digital endoscopes, large kidney stones can be broken up using LASER technology.
One of the techniques offering the patient most advantages is GREEN LIGHT prostate surgery, a technique in which we have a wealth of experience and which allows us to solve the problem of benign prostate enlargement. With a short hospital stay, with no need for transfusions due to blood loss and no complications like impotence or incontinence.
Continued and Future Education
As a result of the emergence of these new treatments, it is clear that the urologist has become a professional requiring continued education. Being able to offer the patient these techniques involves making a constant effort to keep up with education and renovation. Therefore, the only way to do things is to invest time in practice simulators, to visit pioneering centers and attend meetings around the world.
The practice of minimally invasive surgery involves the development and incorporation of new technology. An important factor is the reduction in the size of and the improvement of surgical instruments, which are getting smaller every day and make it possible to operate through a single orifice. Another important factor is high quality 3D vision and undoubtedly, the progressive incorporation of robotic systems.