Moving Towards Safer Prostate Biopsies

The program will feature Agnes Gulbrandsen, a Norwegian hairdresser, who wanted to know why her father died from a brain clot days after undergoing a transrectal prostate biopsy. Agnes is a entrepreneur who owns several salons in Oslo, Norway. The photo is of Agnes and her late father, who died from a sepsis-induced brain clot caused by a transrectal biopsy. She suspected a link but all of her father’s doctors but one brushed her off. Her efforts led to Norway to conduct a national debate on the risks of transrectal biopsies.

The doctors dismissed her until her father’s urologist Dr. Truls Bjerklund Johansen proved the link and did a study showing that patients could avoid sepsis and infections by undergoing transperineal procedures. Dr. Truls Bjerklund Johansen, of the University of Oslo, confirmed the link and did a study showing that patients could avoid sepsis and infections by undergoing transperineal procedures.

Dr. Rick Popert, one of the leaders of the TRexit movement to abandon transrectal exams, will speak about how he helped discontinue transrectal procedures in much of the UK.

Dr. Jeremy Grummet, an Australian urologist, will talk about how his country’s health plan is encouraging transperineal biopsies. Dr. Grummet is Director of Clinical Research of the Urology Unit at Alfred Health, and a urology professor at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He has been one of the leaders of TRexit, an international movement to abandon transrectal biopsies by 2022. He will appear in a recorded video.