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A century of cystectomies at St Peter’s Hospital!
Written by Communications Lead   

Consultant Surgeons at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust who specialise in treating patients with bladder cancer have successfully performed their 100th Cystectomy operation.
 
Mr Ravi Kulkarni and Mr Robin Cole have performed the 100th Cystectomy – the removal of the urinary bladder -  at St. Peter’s hospital. A short while later  the patient is doing well, and is back at home and looking forward to the New Year and 2009 with new-found optimism!
 
St. Peter’s has been designated as the Centre for complex major pelvic cancer operations for Surrey from April 2005. This accolade was given to the department by the Regional Cancer Network. The department needs to perform over 50 complex major operations of this type every year to become eligible for this status. The team of Mr Kulkarni and Mr Cole has been performing over 75 such procedures every year for a long time. In addition to their joint interest in performing cysectomy (removal of the bladder), Mr Kulkarni also undertakes Radical Prostatectomies for early prostate cancer in large numbers.
 
Said Mr Kulkarni: “These are very complex operations. The patients who need their bladder removal for aggressive bladder cancer are generally old and have other medical problems. Mr Cole and I have developed an excellent team of Junior doctors, nurse practitioners and theatre staff, as well as ward teams who look after there patients through their journey during a difficult time. High dependency unit and ward nurses provide an important back-up.”
 
Patients are referred to Mr Kulkarni and Mr Cole from Frimley Park, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford and Basingstoke.
 
                                                                                                                
A special Pelvic Cancer Clinic has been set up at Ashford and St. Peter’s hospitals for the past three years and is run jointly by Mr Kulkarni and Mr Cole with their oncology colleague and a nurse practitioner. Every patient is given a 30 minute appointment so that all the issues can be discussed and their concerns addressed.
 
The outcome of this complex major surgery has been analysed and is of international standards. In addition to the conventional ileal conduit (the bag) which is created after the removal of the urinary bladder, Mr Kulkarni and Mr Cole also create a new bladder from the small bowel so that some, carefully selected, patients can pass water normally.
 
Said Mr Kulkarni: “Bladder cancer is not well publicised. Early diagnosis is essential. Blood in urine is the most common presenting symptom and should not be ignored. Smoking is the most important risk factor – though not widely known or publicised. The Urology department at Ashford and St Peter’s hospitals provides a rapid access one-stop service to assess this problem every week. It is called the Haematuria (blood in urine) clinic.”
 
 
The department has a high reputation for other urological services too. Mr Kulkarni has been to several countries including USA and most European countries to lecture. Internationally he has also given a number of “live” demonstrations of his metallic stent work, relayed from the operating theatres via video link, to an audience of urologists.
 
Recently Kulkarni attended the World Congress of Endo-urology in Shanghai where he presented two research papers on six cases using the modified design of the stent. He also gave an invited lecture on the matters related to stents. He is now the section lead for urological stents and in that capacity will organise the future meetings at the World Congress of Endo-urology.
 
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 31 December 2008 13:20 )