Urinary Stents: Current State and Future Perspectives

Dr Duje Rako, MD, FEBU is consultant urological surgeon working in private practice at present with previous posts in University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia and Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK. He hreceived his MD title from Zagreb university School of Medicine in 2006, passed urology qualification in 2013 and FEBU exam in 2015. He has considerable experience in open cancersurgery and all endoscopic procedures for stones and urogenital tumors with special interest in stone disease and endoscopy. 

Prof. Dr. Petra deGraaf is an Assistant Professor at the Urology department in the University Medical Center at Utrecht, The Netherlands. Her current research goal is to generate a tissue engineered (TE) source of urethra tissue for use in urethral reconstruction. Ideally, a TE urethra mimics the native urethra, consists of multiple cell layers of different origin, protects the underlying tissue as an efficient barrier from urine, is vascularized and resistant to mechanical forces during surgery. As in many patients undergoing urethral reconstruction surgery, the surrounding corpus spongiosum is either absent (in hypospadias patients) or affected by fibrosis. By aiming to integrate the corpus spongiosum in the TE graft, a natural vascular environment is provided. Dr deGraaf's molecular background helps to bring the science to life: experience and knowledge acquired through the years will lead to solutions for health and disease.