6th Meeting of the EAU Section of Uro-Technology in conjunction with the Italian Endourology Association (IEA) || 24-26 May 2018- Modena, Italy
This was my first get away for learning as a resident and I can tell you it was also a pleasure! I didn’t know what to expect since I had never participated at an international congress that had live surgery as well. The live transmission was organized both locally and from remote intercontinental locations and it was great to be able to do a marathon of watching surgeries, with a slalom between the 3 big screens. A lot of urological procedures were made with modern technology, friends and colleagues were laughing together during the coffee-break and after seeing the beautiful poster session, you could hear a nice concert downstairs- urologists are quite talented! I was happy to see many radical prostatectomies and partial nephrectomies, both robotic and laparoscopic, since this is the main surgical activity in my clinic and I could understand more from what I saw. Of course, the interventions I saw for the first time were a great opportunity to learn!
It was quite impressive the surgery performed by G. Bianchi- a robot assisted radical prostatectomy on the PrECE nomogram with real time Cellvizio scan and ex vivo confocal control. The main idea is that Cellvizio enables a good microscopic visualization of surgical oncologic landmarks, including neuro-vascular bundles, allowing nerve-sparing techniques. The presentation with tips and tricks was great for young residents, especially because it included videos with what can go wrong during urologic surgeries. There was also a lecture about the EAU scholarships- by summiting your C.V. and having a little background in publishing articles, as a young urologist, you can benefit from a variety of international training!
Modena … this city has a wonderful charm!
One of my favorite part of this experience was to see so many professionals exchanging ideas and learning from each other, while having a drink at Griffin’s Irish Pub. In a friendly environment, they were discussing surgical techniques and we were trying to grasp a glimpse of how it was when they were in our shoes … I spent a wonderful night with my ERASMUS friends in Bologna and had a surprise meeting with an old colleague who I will sure be happy to meet again at our next conferences as young urologists!
Just like the pianta rampicante was embracing the balcony of the Irish pub, the branches of our connections were extending, maybe never really hunching their roots … We are all made of stories and urology has many more to nurture and discover!
P.S.: Pictures©: Vlad Munteanu
