The Trans Surgery Unit multidisciplinary team was the first in Europe to perform this gender reassignment surgery with the Da Vinci robot in February 2022
The Functional Transgender Surgery Unit at the Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB) is a unique model in Spain. Made up of specialists from the Urology, Gynaecology and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery services, as well a referral nurse, this unit has already operated on fifty people in the last three years.
In September 2019, the HUB performed the first two sex change surgeries. Currently, the multidisciplinary expert unit responsible for these interventions performs an average of 20 feminizing genitoplasty procedures per year.
Since this complex genital surgery program began, the vast majority of interventions have been performed perineally, using the technique known as penile inversion vaginoplasty. Precisely, in 2022 the unit's team performed the first robotic sex reassignment surgery in Europe.
This new surgical technique of robotic vaginoplasty with flap, developed in the United States, reduces the time of the intervention and the risk of complications. It consists of using the peritoneum as a lining for a large part of the vaginal canal.
"As a team, we have approached more experienced centres to learn from them. Some of the HUB specialists have visited hospitals in France, Belgium and the United States," explained Dr Begoña Etcheverry, from the HUB Urology Service. Namely, DR Etcheverry spent two months at NYU Langone Hospital in New York with the team of urologist Dr Lee C. Zhao and the plastic surgeon Dr Rachel Bluebond-Langner, two of the driving forces and world leaders in the technique. "In fact, the first procedures performed at our hospital have benefited from the collaboration of professionals with extensive experience in this field," added the specialist.
Bellvitge is one of the hospitals designated by the Catalan Health Service as a reference centre for surgical care for transgender people, along with Clínic Hospital in Barcelona and Germans Trias y Pujol Hospital in Badalona, with a single list for these interventions.