Mr Rick Popert

Professional statement

Mr Rick Popert was appointed as a consultant to Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals in 1996, having completed his higher surgical training at Guy's and urological research at King's College Hospital.  Mr Popert's clinical expertise is in the comprehensive evaluation and surgery of benign and malignant prostatic disease.
 
PROSTATE CANCER SURGERY:
- Robotic Prostatectomy with the Da Vinci Robot  – Conventional, Retzius Sparing & Salvage Prostatectomy

He successfully transferred his experience from conventional open radical prostatectomy (over 200 cases between 1997 and 2005) to the Da Vinci robotic assisted approach in 2006 and since then has carried out over 800 robotic prostatectomies. He has the UK’s largest experience of salvage prostatectomy following radiotherapy and brachytherapy and has helped to establish a tertiary referral “salvage surgery” clinic at Guy’s Hospital. He is also establishing a “Retzius sparing” surgery programme at Guy’s, in selected cases.
 
PROSTATE BRACHYTHERAPY: 
- Focussed Dynamic Prostate Brachytherapy – Day Case Procedure for low to intermediate risk prostate cancer
- Brachytherapy as a boost to External Beam Radiotherapy for intermediate to high risk prostate cancer.
 
He has the UK's largest experience of single visit dynamic intra-operative “focussed” prostate brachytherapy and has carried out over 900 of these cases since 2004. The oncology team with Dr Stephen Morris and Dr Ronald Beaney, Consultant Clinical Oncologists. can also offer brachytherapy as a “boost” to external beam radiotherapy and the insertion of Fiducial Markers and the SpaceOAR rectal spacer to reduce rectal dosing.
 
PRECISION PROSTATE CANCER DIAGNOSTICS:
- MRI – US Fusion Targeted Prostate Biopsies + Systematic Transperineal Biopsies (General Anaesthetic)
- Precision Point – 2 Puncture Targeted and Systematic Transperineal Biopsy (Local Anaesthetic)
 
He is an expert in Precision Prostate Diagnostics and has developed a rapid access prostate MRI assessment service with Dr Giles Rottenberg, Consultant Radiologist, combined with a unique systematic transperineal biopsy approach providing accurate tumour localisation, an approach that has been further enhanced by the technique of MRI US Fusion Targeted biopsy of the prostate which he introduced in March 2012. Over the last year he has been evaluating the Precision Point Transperineal Access System, which facilitates targeted and systematic transperineal biopsies using a 2 puncture approach under local anaesthetic.
 
BENIGN PROSTATIC DISEASE:
- Holmium Laser Prostate Enucleation for benign prostate disease - HoLEP
- Prostate Arterial Embolisation - PAE
 
For benign prostatic disease, he has one of the UK's longest experience of holmium laser prostatectomy (HoLEP), establishing a service at Guy’s in 2002. He has carried out over 800 holmium laser enucleations with reduced bleeding and length of stay in patients with prostate volumes larger than 100 cc compared with standard transurethral prostatectomy (TURP), the only hospital in London to do so. He established a Prostatology service at Guy’s Hospital attracting tertiary referrals from across London of very large prostates. In 2014 he introduced a prostate arterial embolisation service in association Dr Tarun Sabharwal, Consultant Interventional Radiologist.  This is an alternative to the surgical management of benign prostatic disease avoiding the complications of urinary incontinence, erectile and ejaculatory dysfunction.