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BPH is a common urological pathology that affects 2480 per 100,000 men worldwide. With a rising population and increased age expectancy, the prevalence of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is increasing (Awedew et al. in Lancet Healthy Longev 3(11), 2022). There are many surgical management options for BPH with LUTS, including open simple prostatectomy (OSP), holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP), transurethral resection of prostate (TURP), and transurethral electro vaporization of the prostate (TUVP) (Cho et al. in Int Neurourol J 24(1), 2020). However, these options often have a steep learning curve and increasing complexity with larger prostates. Robot-assisted simple prostatectomy (RASP) offers an alternative approach for large and very large glands for those already trained in robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP), particularly as robotic surgery continues to increase in popularity and is steadily becoming the standard of care in the management of prostate disease (Madersbacher et al. in Gerontology 65(5), 2019). The aim of this study was to demonstrate the surgical outcomes for men undergoing RASP for bothersome LUTs and/or acute urinary retention (AUR) secondary to BPH. A retrospective study was performed which included 105 patients who underwent RASP for the treatment of BPH causing lower urinary tract symptoms or acute urinary retention. This study reviews the pre-operative, (age, PSA, weight, prostate size) operative (duration, histology, estimated blood loss and hospital length of stay) and post-operative (duration of indwelling catheter, trial of void outcome, complications and post-operative PSA) outcomes, to evaluate the effectiveness of RASP for the management of BPH with LUTS. Data were analyzed using standard descriptive measures and multivariate logistic regression for comparison of continuous variables, significance was set to a CI of 95%. The median age of patients was 75 years (IQR 70–78) with a median prostate size of 135.5 cc (IQR 112.25–162.25). Patient demographic and pre-operative LUTS assessments are summarized in Table 1. Median operative time was 60 min (IQR 50–80), estimated blood loss was 350 ml (IQR 200–563), specimen weight was 98.5 g (IQR 69.5–120). Prostate size on imaging directly impacted operative duration (CI 0.07–0.2, p = < 0.001). Eleven (10.5%) of the patients involved in the review had a post-operative complication, two (1.9%) considered major complications Clavien–Dindo grade ≥ 3. There was a statistically increased risk of complications associated with advanced age and prostate size (p = 0.043 and p = 0.001). This study, although limited by its retrospective nature, demonstrates the safety and utility of robotic simple prostatectomy in the context of large and very large prostate volumes. In particular, it offers a safe alternative for men with large prostates who otherwise may not be suitable for endoscopic management. Further prospective and randomized control trials are needed to reinforce the efficacy of RASP to assess its functional and cost effectiveness long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the initial experience with robotic-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) with intracorporeal urinary diversion (ICUD) performed by two robotic surgeons at a single, Australian centre. Methods: Retrospective analysis was conducted on 30 consecutive patients who underwent RARC with ICUD with curative intent for muscle-invasive and high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer between 2017 and 2021. Variables analysed included patient baseline characteristics, operative and peri-operative outcomes, as well as short-term pathological outcomes. Results: A total 30 patients were included; 87% were male and the median age was 71 years. Half of patients had muscle-invasive bladder cancer and 93% had ileal conduit formation (with the remaining two patients undergoing neobladder formation). The median operating time was 247 minutes. The median estimated blood loss was 450 mL and 20% of patients received a blood transfusion. A high-grade complication (Clavien III–V) was encountered in 13% of patients post-operatively. At 90 days, 30 overall complications (Clavien I–V) occurred across 67% of the patients. Conclusion: This series provides further support for the safe introduction of RARC with ICUD in Australia. Further studies with extended duration of follow-up, including oncological outcomes, are required to support widespread adoption of RARC. Level of evidence: Level 4 (case series) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of imaging mass cytometry (IMC) data and other low‐resolution multiplexed tissue imaging technologies is often confounded by poor single‐cell segmentation and suboptimal approaches for data visualization and exploration. This can lead to inaccurate identification of cell phenotypes, states, or spatial relationships compared to reference data from single‐cell suspension technologies. To this end we have developed the "OPTimized Imaging Mass cytometry AnaLysis (OPTIMAL)" framework to benchmark any approaches for cell segmentation, parameter transformation, batch effect correction, data visualization/clustering, and spatial neighborhood analysis. Using a panel of 27 metal‐tagged antibodies recognizing well‐characterized phenotypic and functional markers to stain the same Formalin‐Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE) human tonsil sample tissue microarray over 12 temporally distinct batches we tested several cell segmentation models, a range of different arcsinh cofactor parameter transformation values, 5 different dimensionality reduction algorithms, and 2 clustering methods. Finally, we assessed the optimal approach for performing neighborhood analysis. We found that single‐cell segmentation was improved by the use of an Ilastik‐derived probability map but that issues with poor segmentation were only really evident after clustering and cell type/state identification and not always evident when using "classical" bivariate data display techniques. The optimal arcsinh cofactor for parameter transformation was 1 as it maximized the statistical separation between negative and positive signal distributions and a simple Z‐score normalization step after arcsinh transformation eliminated batch effects. Of the five different dimensionality reduction approaches tested, PacMap gave the best data structure with FLOWSOM clustering out‐performing phenograph in terms of cell type identification. We also found that neighborhood analysis was influenced by the method used for finding neighboring cells with a "disc" pixel expansion outperforming a "bounding box" approach combined with the need for filtering objects based on size and image‐edge location. Importantly, OPTIMAL can be used to assess and integrate with any existing approach to IMC data analysis and, as it creates.FCS files from the segmentation output and allows for single‐cell exploration to be conducted using a wide variety of accessible software and algorithms familiar to conventional flow cytometrists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]