Surgery (Austin & Northern Health) - Theses

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Type: Masters Research thesis × Author: Ow, Darren ×

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    Communication, technology and instruments in the modern contemporary setting of urology
    Ow, Darren ( 2018)
    The 2017 Sensis Social Media Report demonstrated an increase in Australians being involved in Social Media Platform. About 84% of Australians access the Internet on a daily basis with higher usage among the age group under 30 year old and less common among people age group of 40 and over. Delivering accurate medical information to patients or caregivers is essential in any medical practice. Having free access healthcare information with the unknown potential of having inaccurate medical information or unmoderated website for quality control while online consumers with health information-seeking behaviour could lead to false health information. Technological innovation has aided the growth in the healthcare industry. The wide expansion of modes of communication and surgical equipments, especially in urology has definitely changed the practice in the past few decades. It is one of the surgical specialty that has increasingly become a technology-driven specialty. With new innovative surgical instruments aiming to improve the outcomes for patients and the ease of accessibility of communication technology in medical practice has certainly improved in various ways within the healthcare setting. Technology has been part of medical and surgical practice and this continue to change the way medicine would be practice in the future. With regards to surgical instruments, the advancement of endoscopic procedures have shown to be a huge advantage in the surgical practice. Although it does not involve all types of surgery but it has been a turning point in some surgical cases. For example, open surgery was the conventional method of treating benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) but new treatments have been developed over the years without going through major surgery. BPH is a common condition for men as they get older which causes prostate enlargement which leads lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). The BPH prevalence examined in several autopsy studies showed that 20% for men stated to develop in their 40s, reaching between 50% to 60% for men in their 60s, and from 80% to 90% for men in their 70s and 80s. BPH If left untreated, this will eventually lead to blockage of the urinary tract, causing problems to bladder, urinary tract or kidney. The current "gold standard" of treating BPH surgically is transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) using endoscopic method to remove prostate tissue. Although this method is an effective treatment clearing obstructive prostate tissue, the main side effects include bleeding. Laser surgical therapy for BPH was introduced for more than 20 years. To this date, there are various types of laser therapy that are readily available for surgical treatment of BPH with the unique properties of each laser to allow accurate treatment of BPH. The GOLIATH study demonstrated the GreenLightTM laser was noninferior to TURP in terms of the outcomes and had better results in length of catheterisation and length of hospital stay. The impact of technology in any surgical setting with the aim to improve outcomes in treating any disease while minimizing the risk of complication, or improving has changed significantly. With the rapid evolution of this of technology in the surgical field, however,needs thorough research to ensure high standards of care is delivered when utilizing latest surgical instruments. Essentially, the background outlined here not only highlights the core aim of this thesis: to observe the trend and understand the impact of technology in the current surgical practice. Given that this is will be a broad perspective, this thesis will be focusing on two parts, that is, one related to modes of communication using online technology and how it benefits the users and observing the risks involved. The other part of the thesis will be related to advancement of surgical instruments in urological surgery and the outcomes from the new equipments.