Usefulness of a ureteral stent insertion after ureteroscopic stone extraction

Hong, Sung Soo; Kwon, Chil Hun

Abstract

After ureterosoopic stone extraction, temporary ureteral catheter or stent insertion has been performed routinely in order to reduce postoperative pain and other complications even in patients without significant visible damage b the ureter endoscopically. However. it brines considerable discomfort to the patients. In this study. 67 patients with no significant damage to the ureter after ureteroscopic stone extraction were divided into two groups to evaluate the usefulness of temporary ureteral stent insertion. In 35 cases. group 1. a ureteral stent was inserted after stone extraction and in 32 cases. group 2. a stent was not inserted after stone extraction. Then the incidence of postoperative flank pain. dysuria. gross hematuria present for more than 24 hours. fever. admission du. ration. urinalysis and urine culture at postoperative 1 week and 2 weeks. and IVP at postoperative 3 months were investigated. In order to evaluate the relationship of operating time b the incidence or complications, each group divided into those taking more than one hour in operating time and those taking less than one hour. The following results were obtained ; 1. There was no significant difference in the incidence of complications between two groups, except for flank pain. The incidence of flank pain was 11.4% (4 cases) in group 1 and 40.6% (13 cases) in group 2. showing a significant difference (p<0.05). 2. In operations taking more than one hour. stented group showed a significant decrease(p<0.025) in the incidence of flank pain but in operations taking less than one hour, there was no significant difference between two groups. From the above results. it seems that a ureteral stent insertion is not necessary after ureteroscopic stone extraction in case of operating time less than 1 hour and no significant ureteral injury notified. But. ureteral stent insertion is helpful to reduce postoperative flank pain in case of operative time more than 1 hour.