Abstract
Large renal stones (>2 cm) are managed with percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), which has a good stone-free rate (SFR) but a relatively high incidence of complications graded Clavien ≥3. We wanted to review the literature for the use of ureterorenoscopy and laser fragmentation (URSL) for the management of these stones. A systematic review was done from 1990 to April 2014 for all English language articles reporting on a minimum of 10 patients for stones >2 cm in size (done by 2 reviewers independently) in accordance with the PRISMA and Cochrane review guidelines. A total of 379 articles were identified and after screening for the titles (54) and abstracts (29), 12 papers (651 patients) were included. The male to female ratio was 356:232 with a mean age of 54 years (range 16–86 years). With a mean stone size of 2.7 cm (2–3.15 cm) and the mean operating time of 96 min (28–238 min); the SFR was 91 % (1.45 procedures/patient). The overall number of complications was 58 (8.6 %) of which 26 (4.5 %) were complications classed Clavien ≥3 (haematuria with subcapsular haematoma/clot retention-7; ureteral perforation-7; steinstrasse-5; sepsis/pyelonephritis-5; prostatitis-1; cerebrovascular accident-1). Ureterorenoscopy for large renal stones in the modern era has good SFR with a small risk of major complications.
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Robert Geraghty, Omar Abourmarzouk, Bhavan Rai, Chandra Shakhar Biyani, Nicholas J Rukin and Bhaskar K. Somani each declare no potential conflicts of interest.
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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Minimally Invasive Surgery
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Geraghty, R., Abourmarzouk, O., Rai, B. et al. Evidence for Ureterorenoscopy and Laser Fragmentation (URSL) for Large Renal Stones in the Modern Era. Curr Urol Rep 16, 54 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11934-015-0529-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11934-015-0529-3