Earl F. Nation

Vas Deferens Anastomosis: A Report of Four Consecutive Successful Cases1

4 patients in whom bilateral vas deferens anastomosis was performed utilizing a reasonably uniform technique and in whom viable spermatozoa appeared shortly thereafter indicate that suitable patients should be en couraged to have the operation. Indications for the procedure may inclu de the desire for more children psychogenic impotence resulting from va sectomy or accidental severance of the vas deferens during other surgery. Pregnancy should be the final criterion of success when the procedures goal is to relieve sterility. Although patients who have undergone the operation have exhibited deficiencies in their sperm specimens their sperm counts should continue to improve for at least 1 year postanastomosis. The technique permits satisfactory anastomosis in most cases. More operations are needed to determine the prognosis from the standpoint of fecundity.

Lack of Agreement Between Subjective Ratings of Instructors and Objective Testing of Knowledge Acquisition in a Urological Continuing Medical Education Course

Objective scores from multiple-choice questions before and after a postgraduate course were compared to subjective ratings of the instructors at a 3-day seminar. The objective mean scores after the course were significantly higher than the scores before the course (p less than 0.0001). There was no correlation between test results and subjective ratings of instructors.

The development of the wire-loop resectoscope and the ensuing controversy concerning transurethral versus suprapubic prostatectomy.

The development of instruments and machines to make practical the removal of tissue and the controll of hemorrhage transurethrally by use of high frequency current is traced. The vicissitudes of the early users are reviewed and the feuds between them and those who advocated open prostatectomy are recalled.

Radon in treatment of infiltrating carcinoma of urinary bladder

Shown here are the results from the use of radon in the treatment of 146 patients with infiltrating carcinoma of the bladder. Ninety-four per cent of the tumors had invaded the muscle of the bladder; 54 per cent were Stage B2 or worse. Ninety per cent of the radon implantations were done cystoscopically. Twenty-one per cent of the patients survived five years or longer, free of recurrence. An additional 8 per cent were cured by follow-up treatment of recurrences. Complications and morbidity are minimal. Survival results compare favorably with more dangerous and debilitating methods of treatment.

History of Western section of AUA

There has been an active interest in organized urology in the West since the turn of the century. Some evidence of this is that within a year of the meeting at which the American Urological Association was formed from the New York Genito-Urinary Society, on February 22, 1902, five urologists from the West Coast had been voted into membership. * Monthly meetings of the AUA were being held at that time in New York City. Granville MacGowan, in 1913, was the first president of the AUA from the West Coast. Evolution of the geographic boundaries of the Western Section is interesting. The 1907 minutes of the Executive Committee of the AUA and the bylaws of that year indicate that the states and Canadian provinces had been divided into five sections. The Western Section was one of these and included, in addition to the present member states, Colorado, New Mexico, Alaska, and British Columbia. Hawaii and the Philippine Islands were added in 1920. The 1935 bylaws added “Manitoba and provinces west of Manitoba.” In 1940 Colorado had been deleted, and the Canadian provinces included were Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia; Guam and Samoa also had been added. The Sections did not organize and begin to function until twenty years or more after the bylaws were first written. In those early days they called themselves Branches and did not necessarily follow section boundaries prescribed in the bylaws. Although Colorado continued as part of the Western Section until 1940, it was never a part of the Western Branch. In June, 1921, when the Southwestern states petitioned the AUA to form a Southwestern Branch, Colorado was included. The Western Branch was not organized until the following year, thus Colorado was never included. Similarly Utah was part of the Western Section according to AUA Bylaws. However, before the Western Branch was fully organized, Utah was annexed to the Southwestern Branch in 1924. In