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	Mention lasers and what comes to mind? Star Wars and James Bond perhaps, but technology has progressed beyond our wildest dreams. In the last decade, surgical lasers have come into their own allowing surgeons to treat a variety of diseases. In the field of urology, major advances have been made using the holmium laser including the following:
	*Bladder cancer* The holmium laser can treat this cancer in both men and women at an early stage as an outpatient procedure, without the need of a general anaesthetic or hospital stay
	*Kidney stones* These can be treated very effectively with the laser with minimal discomfort to the patient. This is becoming the standard of care for cases involving difficult stones hiding in the deep recesses of the kidney
	*Prostate problems* The holmium laser can be used to treat enlarged prostates in men with urinary symptoms. The advantage is that we avoid many of the side effects associated with standard “coring out” of the prostate and the procedure can be carried out as a day case. It can also be used in combination with specific prostate cancer treatments giving excellent results.