Introduction

There are many instances where dramatic demonstrations of pathology or therapy have significantly influenced medical practice. We explore examples in Urology.

Methods

We identified, and reviewed the pertaining literature on, three key "showmen" in our specialty.

Results

1. Terence Millin (1903-1980). This Irish surgeon trialled TURP but favoured his own modification of the retro-pubic approach, hence "Millin' prostatectomy" still performed today. He demonstrated the effectiveness of this at a meeting of the Royal Society of Medicine when he had a patient, who he had operated on a week before and had plied with beer, to demonstrate his improved flow to the audience of stunned Urologists.

2. Giles Brindley (1926-). This British physiologist made a very dramatic demonstration of the pharmacological effects of Papaverine on the penis by revealing his own, previously injected organ during a lecture at the Urodynamics Society in Las Vegas in 1983. According to leading  Andrologist John Pryor "the impact was tremendous", and went a large way to herald the era of pharmacological treatment of impotence.

3. Christian Chaussy (1945-). This German Urologist was instrumental in developing the first ESW lithotripter. He even volunteered to be the first human subject on this then very much experimental machine. His open door policy, inviting colleagues to live surgical demonstrations, did much to win over the initially sceptical Urological community.

Conclusion

"Showmen" can have a dramatic effect on the development of medicine, as demonstrated by the three presented here who changed the course of Urology.