Acute urinary retention and the difficult catheterization: current emergency management.

Acute urinary retention (AUR) is a common presentation to emergency departments. This article updates the reader on the appropriate management, investigations and guidelines for AUR. It looks at the mechanism of normal micturition and describes the theories of AUR.

Advances in ureteroscopy.

Ureteroscopy (URS) is a procedure which has been constantly evolving since the development of first generation devices 40 years ago. Progress towards smaller and more sophisticated equipment has been particularly rapid in the last decade. We review the significant steps that have been made toward improving outcomes and limiting morbidity with this procedure which is central to the management of urolithiasis and other upper urinary tract pathology.

Patient-derived xenografts reveal that intraductal carcinoma of the prostate is a prominent pathology in BRCA2 mutation carriers with prostate cancer and correlates with poor prognosis.

Background: Intraductal carcinoma of the prostate (IDC-P) is a distinct clinicopathologic entity associated with aggressive prostate cancer (PCa). PCa patients carrying a breast cancer 2, early onset (BRCA2) germline mutation exhibit highly aggressive tumours with poor prognosis.

Objective: To investigate the presence and implications of IDC-P in men with a strong family history of PCa who either carry a BRCA2 pathogenic mutation or do not carry the mutation (BRCAX).

Fournier's gangrene - delayed pedicle flap based upon the anterior abdominal wall.

Introduction: Fournier's gangrene is a poly-microbial necrotizing fasciitis that involves the perineum and/or external genitalia. Urgent surgical debridement is well recognized as essential acute treatment yet unique challenges arise for plastic surgical reconstruction to obtain a complete functional recovery. This case describes a successful delayed pedicle flap repair based upon the anterior abdominal wall.

Altered significance of D'Amico risk classification in patients with prostate cancer linked to a familial breast cancer (kConFab) cohort.

Objective: To ascertain whether D'Amico risk classification is an accurate discriminator of prostate cancer mortality risk in BRCA2 pathogenic mutation carriers and non-carriers from a familial breast cancer cohort.

Patients And Methods: From family cancer pedigrees of patients evaluated through a familial breast cancer cohort all related men with a diagnosis of prostate cancer were identified. Genotyping of each patient or of the dominant familial BRCA2 mutation was undertaken in each instance.

The dilemma of distance: patients with kidney cancer from regional Australia present at a more advanced stage.

Objective: To determine whether patients from regional areas undergoing surgery for kidney cancer present with more advanced disease as a result of geographic isolation.

Patients And Methods: Retrospective analysis of 221 patients undergoing surgery for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) from January 2004 to June 2012, from both a metropolitan centre and a large inner regional hospital. Data was collected on age, gender, presentation (incidental or symptomatic), clinical stage and pathological features.