The Role of Ureteral Stents in Non-complicated Retrograde Ureteroscopies for Ureteral Calculi

Objective: The objective of this retrospective study is to evaluate the benefits of inserting the ureteral stent, for one week, in patients whose ureteral calculi were endoscopically fragmented without any intra-operative complications.
Material and method: The study comprised 140 patients who had ureteroscopies with the ultrasonic fragmentation of the calculi, under regional anaesthesia. The dimension of the calculi was between 5–10 mm. One-hundred-nine patients, who had intra-operative incidents, were split into two groups: group A – 54 patients – to whom a stent was inserted during the procedure, and group B – 55 patients – with no stent insertion. The following parameters were observed: the presence of lumbar pain, suprapubic pain, renal cramps, irritative urinary syndrome, urinary infection and the need for analgesic administration comparatively for the two groups.
Results: The presence of the post-operative ureteral stent diminishes the lumbar, suprapubic and colicative pains, the need of analgesic administration, and the increases of the risc of urinary infection and of the irritative urinary syndrome.
Conclusions: The ureteral stent inserted at the end of the endoscopic procedures [ureteral calculi fragmentation] has a role in a favourable evolution of the patients by increasing the post-operative comfort, but it also represent an inconvenience by the need of its postoperative removal.