Stones: Active retrieval of stone fragments improves outcomes

摘要

Complete intraoperative removal of stone fragments after holmium laser lithotripsy reduces the incidence of subsequent unplanned medical visits, say Oscar Schatloff and colleagues from Tel Aviv University, Israel. Active retrieval might also offer further benefits to patients by decreasing the frequency of rehospitalization, residual stones and ancillary procedures after lithotripsy. "When I started doing ureteroscopic stone surgery during my fellowship training, I was told to just break the stones into sufficiently small fragments, and not to make too much effort to take them out," explains Schatloff. "From time to time, however, I saw patients in the clinic and on the hospital wards who had acute pain events due to retained fragments. As the literature did not give us convincing answers, we decided to address this issue ourselves."