Xu G et al, 2015: A comparative study to analyze the efficacy and safety of flexible ureteroscopy combined with holmium laser lithotripsy for residual calculi after percutaneous nephrolithotripsy.
Xu G, Wen J, Li Z, Zhang Z, Gong X, Chen J, Du C.
Department of Urology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University Hangzhou 310009, China.
Department of Urology, The Third People's Hospital of Hangzhou Hangzhou 310009, China.
Abstract
A certain proportion of patients with initial Percutaneous nephrolithotripsy (PCNL) management require ancillary procedures to increase the stone-free rate. In this study, we aim to analyze the efficacy and safety of flexible ureteroscopy combined with holmium laser lithotripsy (F-UL) for treatment of residual calculi after PCNL by comparison with extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (SWL). Total of 96 patients with residual renal calculi (4 mm to 20 mm) after PCNL was enrolled from May 2010 to March 2013. They were randomly divided into two groups: US Group: patients were treated with F-UL; SWL Group: patients were treated with SWL. Follow-up was made one month and three months after treatment. The mean residual stone size after PCNL was 12.4 ± 4.3 mm in US group compared with 11.9 ± 4.5 in SWL group. The stone-free rate was 84.7% one month after surgical procedure in US group, this rate increased to 91.3% in the third months, while the stone-free rate in SWL group is 64.6% one month after treatment and 72.9% in the third month. For residual stone in lower calyx, the stone-free rate three month after treatment was 90.4% in US group compared to 65.2% in SWL group (P < 0.05). The overall complication rate was low in both groups, no severe complication was found. Both F-UL and SWL are safe and effective methods for residual calculi after PCNL, without severe complications. F-UL provided significantly higher stone-free rate compared with SWL, especially for low-pole calculi.
Int J Clin Exp Med. 2015 Mar 15;8(3):4501-7. eCollection 2015. FREE ARTICLE
Comments 1
This is a comparative study between SWL and fURS for treateing patients with residuals after PCNL. The results are similar to those reported in several other comparative studies between these two treatment modalities. As expected the advantage of fURS was most obvious in patients with residuals in the lower calyx.
The high re-treatment rate for SWL with mean(SD) of 2.6(1.1) was unexpectedly high and indicates either insufficient lithotripsy technique or that the SWL energy for some reason was too low.