DEPARTMENT OF UROLOGY

Urology services at Hamad General Hospital now place greater emphasis on minimal invasive surgery. Most patients with stone diseases are treated with the use of recently introduced techniques such as shock wave or endoscopic ultrasound and electrohydraulic or ballistic lithotripsy. These are methods that crush and dissolve kidney stones. Female patients suffering from involuntary discharge of urine are treated with endoscopic bladder neck suspension while patients with congenital pelviureteric obstruction are treated with endoscopic endopyelotomy.

The use of minimal invasive procedures in Urology was introduced in the hospital early in 1984. It started with "Percutaneous trans-renal nephrolithotomy" or PNL, a procedure that removes kidney stones through a catheter with the aid of a nephroscope. Smaller kidney stones were removed in a 15-minute procedure under local anesthesia. By June 1986, one hundred patients benefited from the less risky procedure.

Today, the Urology Section provides multiple services including urodynamic, microsurgery, andrological and extra corporeal shock wave services. The success rate in different urologic treatment compares favorably with international standards. The Urology Section has one of the Gulf's largest database in percutaneous lithotripsy with over 1500 procedures successfully performed. Implantation of penile prosthesis is a highly successful procedure due to the availability of quality penile substitutes which have a low incidence of postoperative wound infection.

The Urology Section has made significant headway in research. New techniques and methods of treatment of stone diseases have originated from the unit and reports were published in international journals of urology. These innovations perfected by Urology Section include the use of desmopressin nasal spray in treating renal colic, the use of zero tip balloon to disintegrate stones impacted in the intramural part of the ureter that makes ureteric meatotomy difficult, and the use of extra corporeal shock wave lithotripsy in the treatment of posterior urethral stones after manipulating them into the urinary bladder.