A UROLOGIST from California has become the first surgeon from the United States to visit Colchester General Hospital to be trained in a modern surgical procedure.

Surgeons from as far afield as Russia, Kuwait, Spain, Portugal and Belgium, as well as from Ireland and all over the UK, have already visited the hospital to learn a procedure called holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP).

Dr Lance Walsh from the Eisenhower Medical Center in Palm Springs this week became the first to visit from the United States.

HoLEP involves using a high-powered laser to treat a non-cancerous condition called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in which the prostate gland enlarges, making it difficult to urinate.

Dr Walsh observed a team led by Gerald Rix, one of three consultant urological surgeons who use the technique at Colchester General Hospital, which is a recognised HoLEP training centre for surgeons from the UK and Europe.

Mr Rix said: “It was a pleasure to meet Dr Walsh and exchange views as to how surgeons in the United States and United Kingdom treat BPH.

“HoLEP is not widely available in the States because there is no similar training set-up to the UK.

“Dr Walsh tells me he would normally use a robot to carry out the operation for very large prostates back in California, which involves making six small incisions whereas there are no cuts with a HoLEP.”

Dr Walsh said: “The HoLEP procedure is the gold standard procedure for the treatment of BPH.

“The technique is difficult, requiring 50 cases or more to gain experience. It is a privilege for me to train with Mr Rix who is an expert in performing the procedure.”

Access to HoLEP is limited in England but it has been available in Colchester since 2005, the year after Mr Rix started work in Colchester.

HoLEP results in less blood loss, removes more tissue and involves a shorter stay in hospital than other techniques.

One of the consequences of the virtual lack of bleeding is there is no limit to the size of prostates that can be operated on.

Normal prostates range between 40 gms and 60 gms but surgeons in Colchester have used HoLEP to operate on prostates up to 300 gms.

During the procedure, a fine telescope-like instrument is inserted into the patient’s urethra (the tube through which urine is passed).

The high-powered laser is then inserted through this instrument and used to carefully remove the excess prostate tissue that is causing obstruction of the urethra.

The operation can be carried out either under a general anaesthetic, during which the patient will be asleep for the whole procedure, or under a spinal anaesthetic when the patient remains awake but the body is numb from the waist down so no pain is felt.

Patients are usually able to go home within 24 hours and it is sometimes possible for them to return home on the same day.