The last 20 years has seen the biggest revolution in surgical practice. The technology has rushed through all surgical specialist with the main aims of replacing radical surgical procedures with minimal invasive techniques that achieve the same end. The Urologist is justly proud of spearheading and being at the forefront of these advancing minimally invasive surgical techniques. The first endoscopes were developed and applied to urological procedures in the lower urinary tract and to date, there remains no recess in the upper or lower urinary passages which are unaccessible to direct endoscopic examination. Very few enlarged prostates, bladder tumours, strictures or stones which together make up more than 80% of all urological lesions necessitating intervention now require open surgery.

The treatment of urinary tract stones forms a major part of the workload of the urological surgeon with the projected lifetime risk being at least 50% higher than the highest corresponding figures in the West, in addition the experience has shown that we are dealing with different stone disease than the one seen in the West which necessitate special experience in treatment even for the doctors who were trained in the West. Removal of the stone remains the mainstay of the management of these patients and even in the most complicated cases it is now possible to do this with the minimal invasion. The introduction of Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy (PNL) and of Extracorporeal Shockwave Lithotripsy (ESWL) forever altered the approach and indications of urological interventions. The high incidence of stones in our country, the different nature of the stone disease and the rapid change in the means of stone removal necessitate the Urologist to have special training to acquire the necessary skills in various endourologic techniques and ESWL.

Urology Unit in KKUH was one of the first units in the Kingdom to acquire this new technology and to date, it has the largest experience in the Kingdom in various techniques of endourology and stone management in particular percutaneous renal pocedures, ESWL, and ESWL related procedures keeping up to date with the progress in this field of urological surgery. Morever, Endourology, ESWL and other aspects of stone management are the major research interest of the members of the unit. Backed with the experience of over 8,000 ESWL, ESWL related procedures and percutaneous renal surgery together with about 1500 urological procedure per year, the majority of it done endoscopically, we feel that we are well-equipped from all aspects to train urologist subspeciality in our unit at KKUH.