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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.itDear 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.