Dr J. M. Gil-Vernet was invited by the European Association of Urology

The title of the presentation was “Salvador Gil Vernet, a pioneer in urological anatomy.” During the conference, important findings made by Salvador Gil Vernet during his almost 60 years in the field of topographic and microscopic anatomy and neuroanatomy of the pelvis and perineum were brought to light. His discoveries included the detailed description of the perineum musculature, showing that the so-called recto-urethral muscle doesn’t exist as such, and that the superficial transverse muscle is no more than a group of fibres resulting from the fusion of muscle fibres from the superficial portion of the external anal sphincter with fibres from the bulbospongiosus muscle and that never enter the isquiopubian branches. Salvador Gil Vernet also first discovered, in the 20^th century, that the external urethral sphincter was a tubular structure in a vertical position, without bone insertions. He thus corrected the mistakes made by F. Henle in the description of this muscle at the end of the 19^th century and which remained in anatomy books until the end of the 20th century.

In 1944, he published the first regional prostate anatomy model, which served to develop the model that, fifteen years later and with minor changes, McNeal would publish. In this initial model by Gil Vernet, the prostate gland is divided into three zones or regions: the cranial gland, formed by the intrasphincteric glands and the subsphincteric glands, where benign prostatic hyperplasia takes place, and which corresponds to McNeal’s transition zone; the violent gland, whose collector ducts distally discharge in the veru montanum and correspond to McNeal’s peripheral area; and the intermediate gland, which separates the two aforementioned regions and surround the ejaculatory ducts, corresponding to McNeal’s central zone. In 1944, he also discovered, with great detail, the pelvic plexus and the posterolateral and anterolateral prostatic neurovascular bundles and a posterior beam that took place during the Denonvilliers fascia. In 2007, Dr Patrick Walsh acknowledged the pioneering work of Salvador Gil Vernet in an article published in 2007 in the Journal of Urology titled "The Discovery of the Cavernous Nerves and Development of Nerve Sparing Radical Retropubic Prostatectomy".

Additionally, in 1953 he discovered the posterior prostatouretral beam comprising the urethral crest. In his studies on the detrusor, he discovered a pre-cervical transverse arch and its posterior longitudinal beam, and its insertion in the prostate.