Clinical study on the minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy treatment of upper urinary calculi

BACKGROUND Upper urinary tract stones are very common in my country,with an incidence of 1%to 5%in the North and an even higher incidence of 5%to 10%in the south.The incidence rate in the south is higher than that in the north,mainly due to the water quality,climate and eating habits of the region.From the perspective of sex,incidence is more likely in males than females.In the high-incidence population,young adults are most prone to stones.Men in the age range of 25 to 40 years are more likely to have stones.AIM To observe the therapeutic effect of minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy(mPCNL)on upper urinary tract stones and its influence on the renal function of patients.METHODS Patients with upper urinary tract stones who were treated in our hospital from February 2017 to March 2018 were selected as research subjects and were divided into the PCNL group and the mPCNL group according to the random number table method.The general conditions of the two groups of patients were observed during the perioperative period,and the differences in stone clearance,pain,renal function indicators and complication rates were compared between the two groups to determine which were statistically significant(P<0.05).RESULTS The operation time of the mPCNL group was longer than that of the PCNL group(t=-34.392,P<0.001),and the intraoperative blood loss of the mPCNL group was more than that of the PCNL group(t=34.090,P<0.001).There was no difference in renal function indices between the two groups of patients before treatment,and there was no difference in the levels of serum creatinine,β2 microglobulin or retinol binding protein in the mPCNL group after treatment.The visual analog scale score of patients in the mPCNL group was lower than that of the PCNL group(t=12.191,P<0.001),and there was no significant difference in the stone clearance rate between the two groups(χ2 value=1.013,P=0.314).There was no significant difference in the incidence of urine extravasation,dyspnea and peripheral organ damage between the two groups(χ2 value=1.053,P=0.305).At 1 mo after treatment and 3 mo after treatment,the quality of life of the mPCNL group was lower than that of the PCNL group,and the Qmax level of the mPCNL group was higher than that of the PCNL group.CONCLUSION mPCNL has a good therapeutic effect on upper urinary tract stones,with a high stone clearance rate without causing kidney damage or increasing the incidence of complications,and thus has good application value.

Mini versus ultra-mini percutaneous nephrolithotomy in a paediatric population

Objective:To evaluate whether there would be a difference in outcome when the smaller ultra-mini 12 Fr sheath was used instead of the mini 16 Fr sheath for percutaneous nephrolithotomy(PCNL)in paediatric patients for stones less than 25 mm.Methods:This was a prospective cohort study of patients who underwent PCNL in our hospital in a 2-year period from July 2016 to June 2018 by a single surgeon.PCNL was performed in a prone position and tract was dilated to the respective size using single step dilatation.Laser was used to fragment the stone.Stone-free outcome was defined as absence of stone fragment at 3 months on kidney,ureter,and bladder X-ray.Results:There were 40 patients in each group.Mean stone size was comparable between the two groups(14.5 mm vs.15.0 mm).The procedure was completed faster in the 16 Fr group compared to 12 Fr group(24.5 min vs.34.6 min).Stone clearance was highly successful in both groups(97.5%vs.95.0%).There was no difference in complications between the two groups.The decrease in hemoglobin was minimal in both groups(0.2 g/dL vs.0.3 g/dL).Conclusion:We found that the success rates were similar in both mini PCNL and the smaller ultra-mini PCNL groups.No significant difference in bleeding was noted in our pilot study,however,operative time was longer in the ultra-mini group as compared to the mini sheath group.