Workshop on latest techniques in kidney surgery held at BBH

Rawalpindi
A one-day international workshop on latest techniques of kidney surgery, including Micro Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy (PCNL) and Retrograde Intrarenal Surgery (RIRS) was held at Department of Urology and Renal Transplantation, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, here on Thursday.
The Urology Department of Rawalpindi Medical College organised the live workshop that was attended by over 120 doctors belonging to various cities of the country, including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Lahore, Gujranwala and Mirpur Azad Kashmir.
Eminent urologists from Italy -- Professor of Urology at University of Genova Dr. Francesco Germinale and Dr. Aeassandro Perini -- conducted the training workshop while Professor of Urology at RMC Dr. Mumtaz Ahmed was the course director for the workshop. Chief Physician from Department of Urology at Friendship Hospital in Beijing China Dr. Li Jun who was invited as a guest faculty, however, could not join the experts in the workshop.
Giving welcome address on the occasion, Professor Mumtaz informed the participants that the Urology Department at BBH has already been using Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy (PCNL) technique for surgery within the kidney however, now it is planning to introduce Micro-PCNL technique for treating large stones in kidney.
He also gave brief introduction of the latest techniques of surgery including Micro-PCNL and RIRS and described advantages of the use of these techniques.
He informed the participants that instead of a large cut and incision on the skin, the PCNL involves 10 millimetre (1centimetre) keyhole, an incision in the skin overlying the kidney while in Micro-PCNL, the keyhole surgery is performed through a 1.6 mm incision only. The PCNL is the preferred technique for treating large stones, normally over 2centimetre in diameter within the kidney.
He said the modern technique of Micro-PCNL is used to treat large or complicated stones in minimally invasive fashion as only a 1.6 mm hole is used for the surgery. He added that because of much more minimal invasion in Micro-PCNL, the post-operative recovery time is much shorter.
Later, Dr. Perini gave a detailed presentation on instrumentation used for micro-PCNL and RIRS, a surgical procedure for doing surgery with the help of laser within the kidney using a viewing tube.
Dr. Germinale described the techniques to the participants in detail and later imparted hands-on training to them by performing one procedure involving micro-PCNL and one RIRS procedure.
To train young doctors attending the workshop, the organisers arranged an audio-visual transmission of the surgical procedures in the auditorium.
In the concluding session of the workshop, Medical Superintendent at BBH Dr. Asif Qadir Mir presented shields to the foreign experts.