Spanish urological schools (1880-1970).

Introduction And Objectives: We researched the start of urological specialisation in Spain, from the end of the 19th century to the institution of the education system (resident medical intern) to learn about the centres and individuals who created the urological teaching units and training schools in which the first Spanish urologists specialised their training.

Material And Methods: We extracted the references from books on the history of urology, from periodic urological publications and from the posters on history submitted to the congresses of the Spanish Urological Association and filled in the data and dates with the Historical Dictionary of Spanish Urologists.

Result: There are 30 urological specialization centres, 8 with official accreditation recognised by the corresponding ministry but whose official status is unknown.

Alfonso de la Peña Pineda and the Urology exchange by correspondence.

Introduction: In 1943, the brothers Alfonso and Emilio de la Peña Pineda proposed creating a communication system by correspondence as in North America, an idea welcomed by Spanish urologists, a system that was named the Urology Exchange by Correspondence.

Material And Methods: A thorough reading and detailed analysis was conducted of content from 1944 to 1953, with an average of 3 pages of folio size of each copy.

Result: A total of 105 issues containing 234 urological presentations were sent, signed by 67 Spanish urologists, 2 Portuguese urologists and 1 general surgeon.

Analysis of historical articles published in Actas Urológicas Españolas.

Objective: On the 40th anniversary of the edition of Actas Urológicas Españolas, we assess the articles on history to determine the proportion represented, analysing the study subjects and their relevance, getting to know the authors, the main study centres and the interest that the studies offer for understanding the specialty.

Material And Methods: We extracted as many subjects of historic content from the journal as were published between January 1976 and December 2016.

Result: There were 103 historical studies representing 3% of the total number of articles, with a mean of 2.

[Human and professional aspects of Mr. Pedro Cifuentes Díaz (1881-1960)].

Objectives: Reveal some outstanding aspects from the life of Pedro Cifuentes Díaz, remarkable personality of Spanish Urology, who served the "Asociación Española de Urología" for 31 years. His personal documental iconographic legacy allow us to better recompose his life and human size.

Material And Methods: Written material and a collection of 64 personal documents that belonged to Pedro Cifuentes Díaz obtained from bibliophiles, 5 of which were not accepted as his property due to the absence of a compatible context, are analyzed.

[Joaquín María Albarrán y Domínguez (1860-1912): in the centenary of his death].

Context: In tribute to the memory of Joaquín Albarrán in the centenary of his death, we review his biography, comment his work and highlight his urological activity as one of the most important persons of international Urology. The literature on his person and texts has been reviewed.

Evidence Synthesis: Born in Cuba, he studied Medicine in Barcelona, graduating with an outstanding level 1877.

[Urología Clínica, bulletin of the Urology Service of Dr. Sánchez Covisa of the Hospital Provincial of Madrid, edited between 1928 and 1936].

Objective: Make known the important urological work of Sanchez Covisa, third chief of the Urology Service of the Hospital Provincial de Madrid, who beginning in 1928 was able to transform and convert it into possibly the more outstanding one of its time in Spain, comparable to the best hospitals in foreign countries.

Material And Methods: We have analyzed the contents of the publication Urología Clínica, that collect the changes introduced and the work carried out in said service between 1928 and 1936, reflected in a careful yearly statistics on the care, operations and mortality in addition to the articles published by the members of the Service together with a short bibliographic review of each one.

Results: In 1914, he became chief of the Service, and after 14 years, was able to overcome all the obstacles and to extend and modernize the surgery rooms, hospitalization wards and examination resources.

[The unpublished book on urologic therapy by Dr. D. Victoriano Molina Garcia (1899-1986)].

Objectives: To present the unpublished original book on Urological Therapeutics of Dr. Victoriano Molina, a great urologist from Valencia, and to outline his biographical sketch.

Methods: We read his treaty on therapeutics and his publications with detail.

[Does cystocele have a role in bladder outlet obstruction].

Introduction: Controversy exists as to whether cystocele has a causative role in bladder outlet obstruction (BOO).

Objective: To assess the relationship between cystocele and bladder outlet obstruction.

Materials And Methods: Two hundred women undergoing a urodynamic study from December 2007 to December 2008 were retrospectively assessed.

[Hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy in challenging cases].

Objective: To assess the outcome of hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy in patients with significant complicating clinical factors.

Methods: A retrospective assessment was made of 100 laparoscopic nephrectomies performed at a single hospital from 2001 to 2005. Patients with a history of prior abdominal surgery, prior procedures on the involved kidney, evidence of perirenal inflammation, renal lesions 10 cm or more in diameter, or level I renal vein thrombosis were enrolled.

[Baltasar Llopis Mínguez (1934-1990). A pioneer in research on bladder cancer and introduction of computing in Urology].

Objective: To recall the figure of a great Valencian urologist, to emphasize his great personality and humanity, and to draw particular attention to his significant contribution to the study of prognostic factors in urology and estimation of individual oncological risk, as well as to introduction of computing in urology.

Method: His work, the testimony of colleagues who treated him, and data obtained from his close relatives, as well as our own personal knowledge, are reviewed. Result.

[Thirty years of the Oncological Urology Work Group of the Spanish Association of Urology (1978-2008)].

Introduction And Objectives: June 2008 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the creation of the Oncological Urology Work Group of the AEU in June 1978. A historical review is thus made of the circumstances leading to its creation, with a special focus on the role played by coordinators and the activities carried out.

Materials And Methods: A review is made of the Group's rules, the agendas of its annual meetings, and AEU publications since 1968.

Analysis of cholinesterases in human prostate and sperm: implications in cancer and fertility.

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) are postulated to play non-cholinergic roles in cellular physiology. The probable implication of cholinesterases (ChEs) in several human pathologies prompted us to study the cholinergic components in the male reproductive system. Surgical pieces of prostatic cancer (PC) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) were analyzed for AChE and BChE activity.

[Hand-assisted laparoscopic nephroureterectomy for the treatment of upper urinary tract transitional cancer].

Objective: To report our series of patients undergoing hand-assisted laparoscopic nephroureterectomy (HALNU) using the pluck-off procedure.

Materials And Methods: Twenty patient undergoing HALMU for upper urinary tract urothelial tumors from November 2002 to December 2007 were assessed. Demographic, clinical, surgical, and oncological data were assessed.

[The stone disease].

Objectives: In this paper we describe the history of lithiasis and the development of its treatment. We discuss the steps that led to the birth of endoscopic surgery and extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy.

Methods: We reviewed books and writings of History of Urology and Endourology.

[Dr. Luis Cifuentes Delatte (1907-2005). Biographical sketch].

Objectives: With the centenary of the birth of Dr. Luis Cifuentes Delatte, considering he in as one of the most transcendental personalities in the Spanish urology of the second half of the 20th-century, we review his life, his environment, and his relationships, and emphasize his life experiences, in addition to his works and research.

Methods: We read his books and articles from Spanish urological journals from 1930, from which we selected the references we found about him.

[Dr. Luis Cifuentes Delatte. Memories and teaching].

Objectives: With the celebration of the centenary of the birth of Dr. Luis Cifuentes Delatte, due to his great scientific personality, we want to emphasize two features that, taken from his works and memories, we consider have not been emphasized enough: his role as historian of urology, both for the histories he narrated of his life experiences and the historical exposition of several pathologies, and also his teaching as professor of several generations of urologists, with the objective of trying to get to know his great human quality as he demonstrated over his life and showed in his writings.

Methods: We review his books and works, lectures and published papers, in addition the news about his person we have collected from the media, and after analysis, mainly of his memories, we extract data reflecting his personality, and they way he thought and behaved.

[Clinical efficacy of prostatic biopsy. Experience in our center from 1990 to 2002].

Introduction: The prostate biopsy is the only valid tool to diagnose the existence of cancer of prostate. The indications of the biopsy, according with EAU, are the existence of high PSA, increased velocity PSA and a rectal suspicious tact.

Objectives: validation of the utility of the prostate biopsy, to know the value of the PSA as a marker of prostate cancer in our way and to value the indication and efficiency of repeated biopsies.

[Biography of Dr. Enrique Pérez Castro (1908-1980)].

Objectives: With the occasion of the Centenary of Dr. Enrique Pérez Castro's birth, being a relevant figure in our speciality in the second half of the 20th century, we performed a study of the urological environment in which his life was developed and collect the main data about his life and works with the aim of paying tribute to his memory as a great personality in urology.

Methods: We review the books of History of Urology, his writings and the journal Archivos Españoles de Urología during the period of his directorship and as many references related to him as we found.

[The Spanish participation in the Congresses of the International Society of Urology during the 20th century].

Objectives: With the occasion of the Centenary of the Constitution in 1907 of the International Society of Urology, initially named Association, we point at the topics treated and analyze the presence of the Spanish urologists in the foundation act as well as their role and contributions in the meetings during the 20th century.

Methods: We obtained the data from the information in various periodic publications, from the memories of some participant urologists and from the meeting records.

Results: We obtained notes from the foundation meeting of the International Association and two congresses, and also from the 25 congresses of the Society.

[History of rachianesthesia and epidural anesthesia in Spain].

Objectives: To show the beginning of spinal and epidural anesthesia in our country and the contributions of Spanish urologists.

Methods: We reviewed books and writings of History of Medicine, Urology and Anesthesia and Doctoral thesis about spinal and epidural anesthesia.

Results: In the 20th century, surgeons also gave the anesthetic drugs to the patients.

[The teaching of Dr. Francisco Romero Aguirre].

Objectives: After the death of Professor Francisco Romero Aguirre (Zaragoza 6/7/1918-6/28/2006) we want to make known his great teaching vocation, so that we covered his link with University from the start of his studies to his professorship as first professor in urology in the Spanish University (1961), and his work at the chairmanship of the Professional Postgraduate School of Urology in the University of Zaragoza.

Methods: We reviewed his biography, his edited works and publications of the Urology Chair at the University of Zaragoza, and obtained as many references as we found about his teaching activity.

Results: From the start of his academic training he kept a constant union with University and cooperated in all disciplines he had relation with before he got the responsibility of teaching urology.

[The start of urological teaching in the Spanish University. Dr. Alberto Suárez de Mendoza].

Objectives: We present a biographical sketch of Dr. Suarez de Mendoza, one of the first urologists trained as so in the Necker Hospital in Paris with Dr. Guyon, who opened the field to the creation of this speciality in Spain, and first official professor of the subject of in the Faculty of Medicine of Madrid.

[Male aging in the Middle Ages: commentaries on the book by Arnau de Vilanova "Conservatio juventute preservatio senectute"].

In the Middle Ages medical texts the notes about personal hygiene are scarce and they are dedicated to the Kings or the aristocracy. In his work Regimen sanitatis ad inclytum regen Aragorum, Amaldo de Vilanova underlines six things that are necessary for cleanliness, among which he includes his well-known proposition Conservatio juventute preservatio senectute. We compared his text with those from other authors with references to the issue and, once examined, Vilanova's work stands out.