Presentation of the TULA laser device
Presentation of the TULA laser device on Tuesday 18th July 2023
Last Tuesday members of the Association presented a new TULA Laser device to Mr Milan Thomas, Surgeon and (3rd from the right) and other members of staff from the Urology Dept of KCH. Also pictured in the photo are The Captain, Bill Sangha and his wife from West Malling Golf Club. They have donated £16,500. (Please see photo below.) The equipment is not much bigger than a mobile phone. The total cost of the device is £24,150.00. Unfortunately, Mike Henderson (Charity walk organiser) was unable to attend on the day. They have donated at least £1000 each year for years.
Patients with bladder tumours can now have them removed in a quick and simple outpatient procedure – with no need for general anaesthetic or an overnight stay in hospital.
The state-of-the-art laser treatment enables patients to be in and out of hospital in around 40 minutes.
Previously, the removal of bladder tumours would have involved an hour and a half of theatre time plus pre-operative assessments, general anaesthesia and at least one night in hospital.
Under the new procedure, called transurethral laser ablation (TULA), the laser fibre is passed via a flexible small cystoscope into the bladder to blast tumours away.
As this is an outpatient procedure, it means patients do not need to be tested for Covid-19 and self-isolate for two weeks — both mandatory measures before elective surgery — or even stop taking medication for other conditions, including anticoagulants.
Mr Thomas referring to hospital now being able to move some treatments out of the main theatres said, “this will allow us to speed up treatments for patients waiting for other operations such as TUR-prostates, who are currently waiting a long time”.
