Red laser application in minimally invasive urological procedures

  Time: 9:00 a.m. on a certain date in February 2013. Place: Operating Room No. 7, Ganquan Building, Tongji Hospital. After the placement of the amputation position and successful epidural anesthesia, Director Wu Denglong of the Department of Urology of Tongji Hospital began to perform transurethral red laser prostate vaporization excision on an 80-year-old patient with prostate enlargement. The preoperative data showed that the old man had a prostate volume of 65g (normal is less than 20g) and the middle lobe protruded significantly towards the bladder, causing significant difficulty in urination. After the bladder was full, Dr. Wu started the longitudinal vaporization from the 4 and 8 points of the bladder neck, distal to the seminal fossa and deep to the prostate envelope, and then vaporized the middle lobe and both lobes of the gland in the order from the neck to the seminal fossa. The entire procedure took only 40 minutes, and the entire procedure was as efficient and thorough as a “tornado” sweeping through. Two days after the operation, the patient was discharged from the hospital; after six months of follow-up, the patient happily reported that the symptoms of urination had greatly improved, and he no longer had to suffer from the pain of “urinary urgency and suffocation”.  In today’s increasingly advanced science and technology, scientific concepts are constantly updated, laser has long been not a new thing in people’s eyes. Although only 50 years have passed since its conception, it has already occupied an important position as one of the four major inventions of the 20th century (atomic energy, computers, semiconductors). With the in-depth research on its biological mechanism of action and the rapid progress in the development of laser medical devices, it has played a significant role in two medical fields: minimally invasive surgery and interventional therapy.  Urological surgery is entering the “minimally invasive era”. As an important tool for minimally invasive surgery, laser can not only achieve photoselective vaporization and cutting of the target tissue, but also coagulate and stop bleeding, weld blood vessels and treat tumors. According to laser principles and medical clinical needs, scientists are still searching for the most clinically appropriate wavelengths and breakthroughs to increase laser output power. From the development of urological laser applications, it started with neodymium yttrium garnet laser in 1990, and gradually went through holmium laser (1995), green laser (2000), thulium laser (2003). However, all of them were limited by various drawbacks (low power, slow speed, long learning curve, etc.).  In 2007, the red laser came out, and through continuous evolution, the laser power also from 15W to 30W, 50W, 80W, 100W, until today’s red laser 120W/150W. From the technical advantages, the red laser has the “maximum power, the fastest, the most widely used” four advantages. In addition, it also has a unique tornado secret technology – the elbow fiber, to achieve a real laser scalpel, the surgeon can freely cut on the tissue, or vaporization. Besides being able to be used routinely for the treatment of prostate enlargement, it can also be applied to almost the entire field of minimally invasive urology, such as ureteral tumors, bladder tumors, ureteral strictures, urethral strictures, circumcision, and wart removal.  Our urology department is the specialty of Tongji Hospital, under the leadership of famous urologist Wu Denglong, we are able to skillfully perform all kinds of minimally invasive urological surgeries (various laparoscopic surgeries, intracavitary surgeries, etc.) and successfully operate more than 3,000 times a year. 2012 was the first time to introduce red laser technology into the surgical work in Shanghai, which has successfully cured more than 100 cases of prostate enlargement and other related patients with satisfactory follow-up The results are satisfactory.