Mr Rick Popert has a specialist interest in malignant and benign prostatic disease and has established a dedicated Prostate Clinic. Over the last seven years this has developed into a multi disciplinary clinic staffed by three consultant urologists, two radiation oncologists, four registrars and four prostate nurse specialists. The clinic offers expertise in active monitoring, radical prostate surgery using the intuitive “da Vinci” robotic surgical system, dynamic intra-operative prostate brachytherapy, and conformal external beam irradiation. These initiatives have been funded by the Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity and private donations. The service delivers the most comprehensive integrated treatments for prostate cancer available on one site in the UK.
Mr Popert’s surgical expertise is in radical prostatectomy and he has carried out over 300 of these procedures. In the last four years he has successfully transferred his experience from conventional open radical prostatectomy to the robotic assisted approach. In addition, he has the UK’s largest experience of single visit dynamic intra-operative prostate brachytherapy and carried out over 400 of these cases between 2004 and 2009. The technique is particularly well suited to those with larger prostates or who have had previous transurethral surgery, and it is an excellent alternative to radical surgery with comparable disease control rates in patients with low risk cancer and is now available at London Bridge Hospital.
For benign prostatic disease (BPH), he has introduced a Holmium Laser Prostatectomy (HoLEP) service at Guy’s and London Bridge hospitals. He has carried out over 350 holmium laser enucleations with reduced bleeding and length of stay in patients with prostate volumes larger than 70 cc compared with standard trans urethral prostatectomy (TURP).
