Many of the Confederación Americana de Urología’s (CAU’s) creators and those who knew them are no longer with us, so their activities cannot be remembered. Therefore, CAU urologists should leave a mark themselves so that their work will be remembered in the future. Now that technology is available, this is possible.

It was in Santiago de Chile from October 4 to 7, 2023, that the XLII Congress of the CAU, the XLIV Congress of the Chilean Society of Urology, and the XVIII Congress of the Ibero-American Society of Pediatric Urology were held. For the first time, the CAU History Office presented an open forum addressing history in urology, whether it was local or global.

Both the Portuguese Association of Urology and the Argentinian Society of Urology celebrated their centenary of creation this year, and it was interesting to hear Dr Miguel Silva Ramos, president of the Portuguese Association of Urology, and Dr Pablo Contreras, from Argentina, discuss the history of both societies. Likewise, Dr Alfredo Canalini, president of the Brazilian Society of Urology, spoke about the history of his society. Learning about the origin, the founders, and how they have evolved over time was quite interesting and informative. Today, they have all their information available online.

Figure 1. Dr Juan Corrales from Perú and the list of the other members of the CAU History Office: Sebastiao Westphal from Brazil, Hector Vargas from México, and Carlos Fajardo from Honduras.

Dr Sebastián Tobía, from Argentina, presented the origin of the Pediatric Urology Service of the Children’s Hospital of La Plata, and Dr Juan Cruzado, from Perú, performed a similar work on the history of the Pediatric Urology Service of the National Children’s Institute of San Borja. Dr Tobía also presented the “History of the Chair of Urology” at La Plata University.

Other topics were the evolution of endourology at the Edgardo Rebagliati Martins Hospital (Lima, Perú) by Dr Wilson Pereyra and the history of the Dormia basket presented by Dr Michael Salirrosas (Lima, Perú).

Figure 2. Dr Miguel Silva Ramos (A) from Portugal and Dr Alfredo Canalini (B) from Brazil.

Figure 3. Forum speakers (left to right): Dr Alfredo Canalini, Dr Michael Salirrosas, Dr Pablo Contreras, Dr Miguel Silva Ramos, Dr Sebastián Tobía, and Dr Wilson Pereyra.

In the past, Dr Norberto Fredotovich established relationships with their colleagues at the European Association of Urology, and we have done our best to maintain these relationships with the AUA as well. The 2021 CAU Virtual Congress included Dr Ronald Rabinowitz of the AUA who spoke on “The William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History” and Dr Philip Van Kerrebroeck of the European Association of Urology who spoke on “The French Revolution in the Development of Urology as a Surgical Specialty.” In addition to thanking both of them, we would like to thank Dr Octavio Castillo for speaking about the 2010 CAU Congress in Santiago de Chile, which he was president of.

Our appreciation goes out to Dr Reynaldo Gómez (Chile), president of the Société Internationale d’Urologie at the time, Dr Tomás Olmedo (Chile), and Dr Sebastiao Westphal (Brazil), who participated in the CAU History Forum in 2022.

The goal of the CAU History Office is to create a digital information platform about its different societies. Finally, we would like to invite all of you to participate in the next forum, which will take place during the next CAU Congress in Punta Cana, from October 2 to 5, 2024.