We received the sad news that one of our long standing members, Andrew Ball, died suddenly earlier this month. As Paul Abrams knew Andrew well, he has kindly provided a brief biography.
"Andy Ball’s passing is a sad loss to all of us who knew him. Although he had recently retired, he was still academically active and was in fine form at the Bristol Urological Institute Annual Meeting in November last year. It was therefore a great shock to hear of his sudden death.
Andy was a Bristolian and trained in Urology in Bristol. He completed his doctoral thesis under the mentorship of Professor Roger Feneley, who introduced urodynamics to Bristol. Andy became a Consultant Urologist at Southend in Essex, east of London. At Southend, he developed a large urology department and maintained his long-standing interest in functional urology in general, and urodynamics in particular. He was always a delight to be with. He had a keen sense of humour and he was great fun. He was a very warm, friendly and very popular individual with all his colleagues.
He’s left a scientific legacy through his work on the natural history of untreated male lower urinary tract symptoms: at that time called “prostatism”. He studied, by repeated urodynamics, over a hundred patients who had been similarly studied five years previously. He showed for the first time that most men do not require urgent prostate surgery. His paper in the British Journal of Urology in 1981 has been cited over 300 times.
This seminal work formed the foundation for subsequent work on the natural history of LUTS and changed the attitude of the time, which was to recommend immediate surgery in any man who had prostatic obstruction. This is a considerable legacy."
Paul Abrams MD FRCS