Comparison of tubeless-percutaneous nephrolithotomy and ureteroscopic lithotripsy in treatment of upper-ureteral calculi sized ≥1.5 cm / 北京大学学报(医学版)

ABSTRACT

Objective:To compare the efficacy and safety of tubeless percutaneous nephrolithotomy ( tubeless-PCNL) and ureteroscopic lithotripsy ( URL) in treatment of impacted upper-ureteral calculi ≥1.5 cm in size.Methods:Patients with ureteral stones sized ≥1.5 cm and lodged above the fourth lum-bar vertebra who were treated between September 2009 and July 2013 in Peking University People ’ s Hos-pital were retrospectively analyzed .In the study , 182 patients underwent tubeless-PCNL or URL treat-ment respectively , and the operation success rates were compared .The duration of operation , intraopera-tive blood loss ( average hemoglobin decrease ) , complications , mean hospital stay and residual stone rates were also compared.Results: Fifty-four patients underwent tubeless-PCNL treatment,the average stone size was (1.9 ±0.4) cm,nephrostomy tubes were placed in two patients ,and the operation success rate was 96.3%(52/54).In the rest of the 52 patients,and the mean operation time was (30.1 ±14.8) minutes with an average postoperative hemoglobin decrease of (10.2 ±6.1) g/L, and the mean hospital stay was (3.0 ±1.4) days.Only one of the patients had residual fragments (2%).The main complica-tions included minor perirenal hematoma in 1 patient, fever in 2 patients, elevated blood WBC in 11 patients,and analgesics requirement in 3 patients.In the study, 128 patients were treated with URL,the average stone size was (1.7 ±0.3) cm.19 procedures failed,and 10 patients were converted to PCNL, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy was executed subsequently after double -J stent placement in 5 patients,and migration of calculi or stone fragments happened in 4 patients.The mean operative time was (51.3 ±25.5) minutes for the remaining 109 patients with a hemoglobin reduction of (5.2 ±7.2) g/L. The mean hospital stay was (2.9 ±1.3) days, and residual stones were found in 13 of the 109 patients (11.9%).The main complications included fever in 3 patients, elevated blood WBC in 42 patients, an-algesics requirement in 13 patients because of pain in the urethra or flank .The size of the stones between the two group didn ’ t show significant difference ,but the success rate of the tubeless-PCNL procedure was significantly higher .Except that hemoglobin decrease was slightly higher in the tubeless-PCNL group ,the mean operative time , the rate of residual stones and rate of complications of the tubeless-PCNL group were lower significantly.Conclusion:Treating stones above 4th lumbar vertebra larger than 1.5 cm were challenging .It is difficult to treat these stones with URL because of a high probability to fail , but on the contrary, tubeless-PCNL was more likely to be performed successfully .For surgeons experienced with the PCNL technology, treating stones≥1.5 cm with tubeless-PCNL procedure may turn out to be more effi-cient and with a higher operation success rate , and the risk of complications was lower without lengthe-ning the postoperative hospital stay .