INTRODUCTION

Urology is surgical specialty which deals with deseases of the male and female urinary tract and the male reproductive organs.although urology is classified as surgical specialty,a knowledge of internal medicine,pediatrics,gynecology and other specialties is required by the urologyst because of the wide variety of clinical problems encountered.in recognition of the wide scope of urology,the American Urologycal association has identified seven subspecialty areas:

1.Pediatric urology

2.Urologic oncology (cancer)

3.Renal transplantation

4.Male infertility

5.Calculi (urinary tract stones)

6.Female urology (urinary incontinence and pelvic outlet relaxation disorders)

7.Neurology (voiding disorders,urodinamic evaluation of patients, and erectile disfunction or impotence).

Historically,the subject which clearly established the specialty of urology as being distinct from general surgery was the treatment of obstructive urupathy.This treatment ranges from the correction of obstructing posterior urethral valves or ureteropelvic junction obstruction in the infant to the correction of bladder outlet obstruction from benign prostatic hyperplasia in the older male.throuhg the decades,we have witnessed a tremendous increase in our general understanding of the diverse functional disorders of urine transport associated with various overt and covert forms of neouromuscular dysfunction.The rapidly evolving discipline of urodinamics has established itself as a major resource in the diagnosis and therapy of such disturbances.

Stones desease of the urinary tract has always provided a substantial portion of general urologic practice.The recent introduction of rigid and flexible ureteroscopy has greatly improved the capacity of the urologist to deal with the problem while the management of stones in the kidney has been revolutionized twice in the immediate past:first with the introduction of percutaneous methods for stone disintegration and extraction ,and secondly by the application of extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy.Colectively these techniques have largely rendered open surgical procedure for dealing with kidney and urethral stones absolute.These new technologies remain under urological stewardship.In addition,advances in the diagnosis and metabolic management of recurrent nephrolithiasis allow urologist to reduce the risk of recurrent stone formation.

Another area of major urologic concern is that of congenital anomalies.The urinary tract is affected by congenital anomalies more than any other organ system.these congenital abnormalities run the gamut from the relatively common problem of cryptorchidism to the complex area of intersexuality.Most urologists do surgically repair many congenital anomalies in children,but the more complex problems are often referred to urologists with specialized training in pediatric urology.

Involvement of the urologist in the problem of renal insufficiency and end-stage renal desease has been necessitated by an enormous increase in the number of patients dialysis and requiring transplantation.In a number of centers,urologist are the prime surgical arm for renal transplantation and in others ,serve as member of the surgical team

Treatment of malignant disease is very large portion of urologic practice.some of the most encouraging results in the medical and surgical management of solids tumors have involved genitourinary tumors,namely testis tumors and wilms' tumors.the development of multimodal therapy,in which chemotherapy,radiation therapy, and surgical treatment are used in conjucntion,will hopefully improve the results of treatment of othre genitourinary malignancies.newer diagnostic methods for the detection of prostate cancer occupies much of many urologits time.