Fundació Puigvert

WHO IS IT FOR?

Fundació Puigvert is a centre renowned for the diagnosis and medical and surgical treatment of urogenital and renal disease in men, women and children. 

The main diseases of the urogenital system are prostate problems, urinary lithiasis that produce renal colic and other complications, oncological pathologies (prostate cancer, bladder cancer and kidney cancer), erectile dysfunction and other disorders, and incontinence. The centre has experts in congenital genitourinary malformations in children and adolescents. 

Fundació Puigvert is also the international leader in kidney transplants and one of the most active centres in the world in living donor transplants.

WHY?

• Highly specialised and extensive experience

Fundació Puigvert has more than 700 professionals dedicated exclusively to the centre’s three specialities, annually providing the highest volume of care in Europe in these fields and the highest level of expertise in the treatment of these diseases. The urology, nephrology and andrology services are subdivided into specialized departments that ensure the centre has highly specialised professionals in each of these fields. Given their international renown, they deserve a special mention:  

• Uro-Oncology Department for the diagnosis and treatment of tumours in the kidney, adrenal gland, ureter, bladder, urethra, prostate, testicle and penis using state-of-the-art diagnostic and surgical techniques. 
• Urinary Lithiasis Department for stone removal using conventional surgical techniques, endoscopy and shock waves. 
• Micturition Dysfunction Department using urodynamic studies for the treatment of incontinence in both men and women. 
• Paediatric Uropathy Department for the surgical treatment of urological defects and tumours in children and enuresis. 
• Chronic Kidney Disease Department for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD). 
• Male and Female Sexual Dysfunction Department for the diagnosis and treatment of pathologies that alter sexual relations between couples.

Some of the experts on the hospital’s “front lines” include Dr. Alberto Breda, an international authority in kidney transplants and robotic surgery; Dr. Joan Palou, world-renowned expert in bladder cancer treatment; Dr. Eduard Ruiz-Castañé, pioneer in andrology and genital surgery; and Dr. Anna Bujons, recognised specialist in paediatric urology.

The hospital also provides a range of support services, including diagnostic imaging, laboratory, nursing, psychological care, etc., all with the highest expertise guaranteed because all specialise in patients with urogenital disorders. By focusing on just three specialties, the centre is able to offer the full range of proven urology, nephrology and andrology treatments and technologies on the market.

Thanks to its experience and outcomes, the Fundació Puigvert University Hospital has been chosen as a leading centre for complex treatments for the Spanish public system (as part of SISCAT) and is an international benchmark within the scientific community in many areas of the specialty, particularly contributions in the field of oncological urology, urogenital congenital malformations, and kidney transplants.

• Centre specialised in robotic surgery  

The Fundació Puigvert introduced the first Da Vinci® robot in Spain in 2005. The numerous advantages the equipment offers lead the hospital to begin to use the robot for paediatric operations in 2007.

Since 2005, all radical prostatectomies (one of the most in-demand yet highly complex operations) performed at the hospital have been done with minimally invasive techniques, given the advantages for both the patient and the professional. In 2010, Dr. the Fundació Puigvert’s Alberto Breda was the first surgeon in Spain to perform a kidney removal from a living donor using the Da Vinci® robot and, five years later, he was the first, together with Dr. Nicolas Doumerc in Toulouse, to perform a complete robotic kidney transplant from a living donor in Europe.    

The experience and outcomes achieved with the use of these techniques led the members of the European Association of Urology (EAU) to elect Dr. Alberto Breda, current Head of the Oncological Urology Department at the Fundació Puigvert in Barcelona, as President of the EAU Robotic Urology Section (ERUS) for the next 8 years (2021-2029).

• • Top centre for kidney transplants

With both its living and deceased donor programmes, the Fundació Puigvert is an international leader in kidney transplants. Specifically, the Fundació Puigvert is a pioneer in promoting the living donor programme, boosting this type of kidney donations among friends, couples, family members and even from selfless volunteers – in 2011 it was the first centre in Europe to perform a kidney transplant using an organ from one of these “Good Samaritan” donors. Currently, around 70% of living donor kidney transplants at the Fundació Puigvert are performed with robotic surgery and the use of this technique has numerous advantages for the patient, minimising complications, reducing postoperative pain and enhancing recovery.

Milestones in living-donor kidney transplants at the Fundació Puigvert

• 2004: First transplant between non-family members in Spain.
• 2009: First laparoscopic kidney transplant in the world.
• 2010: First living donor kidney extraction with the Da Vinci® robot in Spain.
• 2011: First living donor kidney transplant in Europe involving a “Good Samaritan” donor.
• 2013: First living donor transplant with an incompatible kidney.
• 2015: First complete kidney transplant performed with robotic surgery in Europe.
• 2018: First international cross-over kidney transplant in Southern Europe.

• Experts in Andrology

The Andrology Department at the Fundació Puigvert, created in 1970, was a world pioneer, contributing to the creation of the International Society of Andrology (ISA) and participating in the development of the field over the decades. The hospital’s milestones in andrology include its contributions to the treatment of sexual disorders, the implantation of the first penile prostheses, microsurgery of the seminal tract, advanced studies for the diagnosis of meiotic and genetic alterations that cause male infertility, diagnostic imaging techniques and endocrinological research into the pathologies that cause testicular dysfunction.

With the advent of modern assisted human reproduction techniques, the hospital opened and enhanced its embryology laboratory, which now offers all available therapeutic options, including surgical sperm retrieval in azoospermic patients, female fertility preservation, embryo and oocyte banking, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, and the latest time-lapse embryo culture systems with real-time monitoring.

• European leader in 7 urological sub-specialities

The Fundació Puigvert has become the only certified training centre in Europe in 7 urological sub-specialities: urothelial, prostate and renal cancer, renal transplant, kidney stones, female urology and incontinence and paediatric urology.

Doctors from the Fundació Puigvert hold relevant positions in all European urology, nephrology and andrology scientific associations.

In terms of teaching, the centre is an international benchmark that trains other urologists and nephrologists from Europe and around the world. Annually (the COVID-19 pandemic an exception), more than 1,500 specialists from all over the world are trained in the three specialties through the centre’s multiple training programmes. 

For example, the Fundació Puigvert is certified as an ‘EUSP Host Centre’, an international recognition as a European centre of quality that means it can host fellows from the European Urological Scholarship Programmes (EUSP).

FOR FOREIGN PATIENTS

The Fundació Puigvert’s health care model is based on personalized, multidisciplinary care across the hospital’s departments, making it possible for all medical staff involved to participate in diagnostic and/or therapeutic decisions, guaranteeing rapid and accurate diagnoses and the specification of the right treatment. 

The Fundació Puigvert performs all surgical procedures in its three specialities, from the most minor to the most complex and specialised. All with the utmost expertise and without delays, a particularly important factor for foreign patients.

A BIT OF HISTORY

Fundació Puigvert was founded in 1961 by a prominent urologist from Barcelona, Professor Antoni Puigvert, and soon became an international leader in its field. In fact, Fundació Puigvert was one of the first institutions in Europe to pioneer what many call “medical tourism”, its reputation drawing many patients from different parts of the world even at a time (the 1960s and 1970s) when travel for health reasons was extremely rare.  

Now, 60 years later, its hallmark is still the same – a university hospital highly specialised in urogenital pathologies, with a strong patient-centred approach to care, teaching and scientific research.