Evaluation of Safety and Efficacy of Ureteroscopic Lithotripsy in Managing Ureteral Calculi

Objective: To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Ureteroscopic Lithotripsy for the treatment of ureteral calculi by using Swiss Lithoclast. Study Design: Descriptive Case series study. Place and Duration: This study was carried out at the Institute of Kidney Diseases, Hayatabad Peshawar from July 2009 to February 2011. Subjects and Methods: The study included patients of either gender over 14 years of age who had ureteric stones and were managed with ureteroscopic lithotripsy using Swiss Lithoclast at our institute. Consecutive sampling technique was employed. Patients who had already received treatment at some other health care facility, those 14 years of age, or those having radiolucent stones, stones over 2cm, failure to apply Swiss Lithoclast were excluded from the study. Results : Out of a total of 82 patients, 70.73%( n= 58) were males and 29.26% (n=24 ) were females. The age ranged from 17-97 years, with the mean age of 43.31 years. The success rate of stone removal in the upper, middle and lower ureter was 72.72%%, 87.5% and 95.23% respectively. The overall success rate was 85.15%.The overall complication rate was 17.04 % and the main complications included ureteral perforation (n=2), ureteral avulsion (n=1), urosepsis (n=2) and stone migration (n=10). Conclusion: Ureteroscopic lithotripsy using Swiss Lithoclast is a safe and effective method of managing ureteric stones measuring less than 2 cm.