376 Cases of Ureteroscopic Stone Removal

Sun, Young Bae; Heo, Dae Sun; Woo, Jae Hak; Kim, Young Hack; Park, Heung Jae; Kwon, Chil Hun

Abstract

PURPOSE: We retrospectively reviewed the cases of ureteroscopic stone removal at our institution to define the efficiency of ureteroscopy for treatment of ureteral calculi.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Ureteroscopic stone removal was performed in 376 cases of ureteral stone from August, 1989 to December, 1997. There are 241 males and 135 females, and mean age was 45.6 years. Nine stones were located in the upper ureter, 27 in the mid ureter, 340 in the lower ureter. The stone size was less than 5mm in 125 cases, from 5 to 10mm in 185 cases and more than 10mm in 66 cases. Ureteroscopy was performed with 9.5Fr, 10Fr or 12.5Fr rigid ureteroscope under spinal, general or epidural anesthesia.
RESULTS
Overall success rate of ureteroscopic stone removal was 95.1 percent. The success rates of upper, mid and lower ureteral stones were 55.6, 88.9 and 97.1 percents, respectively. According to the stone size, the success rates was 97.6 percent in stones less than 5mm, 94.6 percent in stones of 5 to 10mm and 92.4 percent in stones more than 10mm. Over all complication rate was 9.6 percent. Complications consisted of severe ureteral mucosal tearing(20 cases), ureteral perforation(8 cases), gross hematuria(3 cases), infection(3 cases) and urethral stricture(2 cases). All complications were treated successfully with conservative treatment except 2 cases of urethral stricture that required visual urethrotomies.
CONCLUSIONS
Ureteroscopic stone removal could offer rapid relief of obstruction and colic due to mid and lower ureteral calculi with high success rate and minimal complications.