COVID-19: Measures to prevent hospital contagion. What do urologists need to know?

A new outbreak of respiratory infection caused by the novel coronavirus in late December 2019 in China caused standards of medical care to change not only for related areas but for the entire healthcare system, and when the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic new strategies of patient care had to be defined initially to optimize resources to confront the pandemic and then to protect healthcare personnel. As urologists, we must be involved in these new standards, since without an effective vaccine the risk of contagion is high; thus, the purpose of this review is to have orientation on the measures urologists should take in their everyday clinical practice.

Robotic surgery in public hospitals of Latin-America: a castle of sand?

INTRODUCTION: There is no information about the evolution of robotic programs in public hospitals of Latin-America. OBJECTIVE: To describe the current status and functioning of robotic programs in Latin-American public hospitals since their beginning to date. METHODS: We conducted a survey among leading urologists working at public hospitals of Latin-America who had acquired the Da Vinci laparoscopic-assisted robotic system. Questions included: date the program started, its utilization by other services, number and kind of surgeries, surgery paying system, surgery related deaths, occurrence and reasons of robotic program interruptions and its use for training purposes. Medians and 25-75 centiles (IQR) were estimated. RESULTS: Since 2009, there are ten public hospitals of four Latin-American countries that acquired the Da Vinci robotic system. The median number of months robotic programs has been functioning without considering transitory interruption: 43 (IQR 35, 55). Median number of urologic and total surgeries performed: 140 (IQR 94, 168) and 336 (IQR 292, 621), respectively. The corresponding median number of urologic and total surgeries performed per month: 3 (IQR 2, 5) and 8 (IQR 5, 11). Median number of total surgeries performed per year per institution was 94 (IQR 68,123). The median proportion of urologic cases was 40% (IQR 31, 48), ranging from 24 to 66%. Five of ten institutions had their urology programs transitory or definitively closed due to the high burden costs. CONCLUSION: Adoption and development of robotic surgery in some public hospitals of Latin-America have been hindered by high costs.

Macroscopic hematuria as an initial symptom of testicular cancer, an unusual presentation and initial management. A case report.

INTRODUCTION: The most common causes of hematuria are lower urinary tract infections, especially of the bladder, urolithiasis, urogenital tumors or benign prostatic hyperplasia; consequently, this condition presents the greatest clinical challenge due to its broad clinical spectrum, hematuria is an atypical form of presentation of testicular tumors, with very few cases reported in the literature, reaffirming the importance of a complete examination when approaching hematuria in the emergency department. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case of a 31-year-old patient who presented to the emergency department with macroscopic hematuria of 5 weeks of evolution, showing on examination a mass in the left testicle. Imaging studies showed bilateral pulmonary metastatic lesions and retroperitoneal lymph node activity with a retrocaval conglomerate infiltrating the left ureter, for which a radical left orchiectomy and multiple procedures were performed to resolve the hematuria. DISCUSSION: Macroscopic hematuria in adolescents or young adults is an infrequent cause of admission to the Emergency Department with a large list of differential diagnoses both benign and malignant so it is necessary to perform exhaustive studies in its approach, when young patients present with a painless testicular mass, it is important to keep testicular cancer within the differential diagnoses, metastatic disease is a rare form of presentation in this type of tumors. The relevance of this clinical case lies in the fact that hematuria was the main symptom that brought the patient to the emergency department, so we must not forget that macroscopic hematuria should be extensively studied. CONCLUSION: When approaching a patient with macroscopic hematuria, the clinical history and physical examination is extremely important to provide the best possible care and focus the treatment properly.

COVID-19: Measures to prevent hospital contagion. what do urologists need to know?

ABSTRACT A new outbreak of respiratory infection caused by the novel coronavirus in late December 2019 in China caused standards of medical care to change not only for related areas but for the entire healthcare system, and when the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic new strategies of patient care had to be defined initially to optimize resources to confront the pandemic and then to protect healthcare personnel. As urologists, we must be involved in these new standards, since without an effective vaccine the risk of contagion is high; thus, the purpose of this review is to have orientation on the measures urologists should take in their everyday clinical practice.