Treatment of ureteral calculi with the Zeiss loop

Abstract

342 patients with ureteral calculi were treated with the Zeiss loop. In 5 of the patients the loop was used bilaterally. The calculus was removed in 287 (82.7%) cases. Treatment with the loop failed in 60 (16.3%) patients. Best results with this treatment were achieved when the calculi were located in the lower third of the ureter. Here 87.6% of the calculi could be removed. When the loop was utilized in the middle third of the ureter treatment proved successful in 76.3% of the cases whereas 61.9% of the patients were successfully treated when the stone was in the upper third of the ureter. In one case perforation of the ureter occurred after a loop which had been in place for 8 days was pulled. In another patient the loop got caught and had to be removed by an open procedure. Two patients (0.58%) died during treatment, one of them of consequences of his underlying diesease, the other one succumbed to urosepsis.