This year, the 9th Asian Congress for Urology was held in the Indian capital of New Delhi, from 1 – 5 October. The conference attracted more than 1,500 local and international delegates. The conference was held at The Ashok, the largest hotel cum conference centre in the diplomatic area of Chanakyapuri in New Delhi.

The Asian Society for Female Urology and Neuro-vesical Dysfunction (ASFU) organised its sub-specialty meeting on the 2 October. The meeting comprised of three themes: Management of the overactive bladder, recent advances and future trends.

Session 1: Management of the overactive bladder

Dr Gopal Badlani (USA) presented the Indian management guidelines on management of the overactive bladder while highlighting the problems that the guidelines committee faced i.e. large population, generally conservative populace, multilingual, varied literacy rate and varied financial capabilities. This was followed by a talk on the pharmacotherapy of overactive bladder with special emphasis on the characteristics and advantages of Fesoterodine. The talk was delivered by Associate Professor Siow Woei Yun (Singapore), who is also the current secretary-general of the ASFU. Professor Peter Lim (Singapore) rounded up the session with a lively talk, peppered with multiple video clips, on the surgical management of the overactive bladder. Professor Peter Lim is the current president of the ASFU.

Session 2: Recent advances

This session focused on the recent advances in the area of female urology and neuro-vesical dysfunction and was chaired by Dr David Consigliere (Singapore). Dr Ajay Singla (USA) summarised the minimally invasive treatment modalities for urinary incontinence. Dr N Rajamaheshwari (India) presented her extensive experience in the management of advanced pelvic organ prolapse. She was able to achieve both organ conservation as well as pelvic floor repair using native tissue with consistent and reproducible results. Dr Saturo Takahashi (Japan) presented on the same topic but focused on the use of the vaginal mesh. He showed that durable results were possible with minimal mesh-related complications e.g. erosion and extrusion. Finally, Dr Shailesh Raina (India) presented his experience with lattisimus dorsi dynamic myoplasty for the treatment of the atonic bladder. If the results are reproducible, it will certainly be an appealing alternative to clean intermittent catheterisation for the management of the atonic bladder.

Session 3: Future trends

The final session dealt with future trends. Dr Gopal Badlani (USA) gave an overview of the use of biomaterials in pelvic floor reconstruction. This was followed by an interesting talk on the potential of stem cells, in particular, adult-derived stem cells for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence. The talk was delivered by Dr George Tan (Malaysia). Dr Yoshihiko Hirao (Japan) gave the final discussion of the meeting and introduced the portable uroflow-meter and the electronic voiding diary. It was a great attempt to incorporate information technology into daily life.

The half-day programme proved to be an entertaining, informative and interactive session that was thoroughly enjoyed by all the participants. The organising committee, led by Associate Professor Siow Woei Yun, was very competent and efficient in organising the event.