Controversies in Urology (CURy): What Is It All About?

In recent times, basic and clinical data in the field of urology and in field-related technology have expanded immensely. In an era of rapid developments and innovations, there is an increasing need to update our knowledge and especially to guide our practice by innovations and evidence-based medicine. The recent flood of novel insights, treatment modalities, and clinical observations, in parallel with the speed and magnitude of technological advances and changes has major implications on our clinical practice and raises a significant number of questions for clinicians and patients. Because the problem of urologic diseases has reached epidemiologic dimensions, disease management prospects are sought from diverse sources.

Along with the rapid developments and innovations that influence our practice, we are in an era in which determination of the most appropriate management for a urologic condition must also involve consideration of the individual's characteristics and risk factors and the balance between treatment efficacy and survival benefits and the patient's quality of life. This created a need to debate the many controversial issues on a wide spectrum of urologic conditions and to reach clinical conclusions. The first congress on Controversies in Urology (CURy), held in Barcelona, Spain, in February 2008, was designed as an exclusive forum in which world experts and opinion leaders from different disciplines in urology could meet to discuss their insights on and experience with controversial issues relevant to the field. A congress focusing on controversies was a new concept, and it provided clinicians with answers to previously unresolved questions of clinical relevance. The second CURy meeting, held in Lisbon, Portugal, in February 2009, was designed to continue the debates and discussions on controversial issues in the continuously evolving field of urology, to provide a deeper understanding of novel findings, to provide the ability to integrate novel technologies into clinical practice, and to consolidate current knowledge by way of evidence-based studies. Selected highlights from the second CURy meeting are brought to you in this supplement.

We hope that debating clinically relevant controversies and presenting recent scientific innovations and observations on these fascinating topics will promote further discussions. We leave the readers to decide what pieces of data are convincing enough to be integrated into their daily practice.

Conflict of interest: The authors have nothing to disclose.