ESSM Newsletter # 37

8 ESSM Today The new ESSM – Boston scientific partnership for a three-year educational program: Report from the European masterclass on penile prosthesis implant by Carlo Bettocchi dr. carlo bettocchi Professor of Urology University of Bari Italy carlo.bettocchi@uniba.it Dear Friends and Collegues, first of all I would like to spend few words with regard of my treasurery resignation during Nice ABM. It has been a strong decision for trying to move ESSM establishment to renew our by-laws and give a more updated and balanced mech- anism for election into different EC positions. Afterwards, I have been asked by both, president and president elect to complete my last year as treasurer in order to avoid problems in the ESSM financial work and with the genuine commitment to change and ameliorate the actual bylaws. We are now working hard to complete this difficult but essential mutation. Going back to our educational programs, the European Society of Sexual Medicine (ESSM) together with Boston Scientific International (BSI) has developed a 3 years’ program (2017-2019) of educational activities in penile prosthetic sur- gery. It has been scheduled in three different levels (figure 1): The first one for beginners with residents and fellow program and new implant- ers hands on classes. The second level, created for experts, includes European expert’s meetings and advanced techniques coaching program while level 3, conceived for masters, includes a training program for the trainers and a manage- ment skills program. The “European Masterclass on penile prosthesis implant” held in Bari from the 20 th to the 22 nd of April represents the first event of these educa- tional activities within the level 2 schedule and has been a great occasion to share tips and tricks between experts and beginners in penile prosthetic surgery. This live surgery course or- ganized by Carlo Bettocchi and Michele Battaglia in the role of presidents together with Fabrizio Palumbo and Marco Spilotros as scientific refer- ents aimed to show different surgical techniques for penile prosthesis insertion ranging from virgin penile implants to complex cases such as in patients underwent to previous penile surgery or with severe corporal fibrosis. Surgeons at dif- ferent levels have been involved in this event: residents and fellows, new implanters and ex- perts in penile prosthetic surgery have partici- pated as attendees or members of the faculty. A magnificent effort to bring attendees from all around the world to Bari has been shown by the local branches of Boston Scientific. The major- ity of participants were from Europe (including, between the others, 59 Italians that were the most represented country) but a significant part of the attending urologist were also from Africa (11), Asia (17), USA (2) and South America (3). This aspect reflects the growing interest and the need to attend practical courses where this kind of surgery is clearly demonstrated and explained “step by step” by masters in this field during live surgery and videoclip sessions. A total of 10 procedures have been performed during the Masterclass. During the first day J. Martinez-Salamanca demonstrated a three-piece inflatable implant insertion in a virgin patient with ED secondary to diabetes while Ignacio Moncada (Spain) performed a double implant of an artificial urinary sphincter and a penile prosthesis. In the second session of the 20th April two interesting cases were performed by Nim Christopher (inser- tion of a 3P prosthesis in a FtoM transgender with a pubic phalloplasty) and David Ralph (3P prosthesis implant and modelling in patient with Peyronie’s disease) both surgeons from UCLH, London, UK. Simultaneously several lectures where presented by Italian and international guests on different topics including the manage- ment of difficult penile prosthesis implant (Dan- iel Chevallier, France), complications (Antoine Faix, France) and variety of patches for penile reconstruction (Ruiz Castane, Spain). The first session of the second day has been focused on the surgical management of erectile dysfunction and penile curvature. Complex cases of penile prosthesis implant with modelling and patching of the penile shaft using different techniques have been showed by experts in this field such as Rados Djinovic (Serbia), Koen van Renterghem (Belgium) and Omid Sedigh (Italy). This session achieved huge success among the audience thanks to the complexity of the procedures and detailed demonstration of penile anatomy. During the last session of live surgery, a demonstration of penile prosthesis substitution has been given by Maurizio Carrino (Italy). Saturday 22nd has been dedicated to a video-clip-session on the best tips and tricks and worst cases of penile prosthetic surgery presented by expert members of the faculty including Maarten Albersen (Bel- gium), Ahmed Shamsodini (Qatar) and Salvatore Sansalone (Italy). The Masterclass earned big success among the attendees and the members of the faculty thanks to the conditions presented and the different techniques utilised to treat challenging situations such as ED in severe corporal fibrosis or re-do penile implants. Live surgery and videoclips have been appreciated not only by the new implant- ers, residents and fellows who could reinforce their basic skills in this field but by experts who could compare and discuss their difficult cases and share their experiences too. We reckon that the educational program pro- moted by ESSM/BSI could become a milestone in the training of the uro-andrologist and could represent a source of continuing learning and debate between experts.