after watching american urologist patrick c. walsh at the johns hopkins university, baltimore, perform open radical prostatectomies for prostate cancer, while simultaneously preserving pelvic nerves, he became a staunch advocate of the procedure. in 1995, he became a professor of urology and director of postgraduate education at st george's hospital, london. by 2005, using a suprapubic transverse incision, kirby was performing around 130 of these operations a year. most of these procedures were performed with colleague and anaesthetist peter amoroso, with whom they commonly introduced themselves as batman and robin.