What is urology?

According to the Dictionary of the Spanish Language, Urology is defined as "that part of medicine referring to the urinary system", that is, it is a medical-surgical speciality that covers the study, diagnosis and treatment of pathologies affecting the urinary system, the adrenal glands and retroperitoneum of both sexes, and the male reproductive system, with no age limit.

The origins of the specialty go back to the second half of the 19th century, before which it was considered only a sub-speciality of general surgery. There were three basic factors leading to that separation:

1. The invention of the cystoscope, an instrument of observation for examining the bladder and urethra.

2. The development of specialised treatment for the pathologies of lithiasis, that is, pathologies caused by the formation of calculi (stony deposits) in any excretory duct, which until then had been treated by specialists in lithotomy.

3. The need to create monographic units of medicine within the broad field of General Surgery.

Urology includes various sub-specialities :

- Andrology.

- Urologic oncology.

- Neuro-urology.

- Endo-urology.

- Pediatric urology.

- Geriatric urology.

- Urolithiasis.

Among the various different kinds of surgery carried out in this specialty, the treatments for benign hyperplasia of the prostate (BHP) and kidney transplant surgery have undergone major advances in recent years; these are the kinds of surgery we undertake in our medical-surgical practice.