Investigating ESWL success rate in the treatment of renal and ureteral stones in children

OBJECTIVE

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is one of the most important methods of treatment for stone in children. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the success rate of ESWL in the treatment of kidney and ureteral stones in children referred to Hasheminejad kidney center during the second half of 2018.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This observational prospective study was conducted on 144 children referred to Hasheminejad kidney center during the 2018. The patients were selected using the convenience sampling method. The study was investigating the success rate of ESWL in the treatment of kidney and ureteral stones and effective factors in this regard.

RESULTS

A total of 133 patients (92.4%) had stone passage and 37.5% of patients had residual stones, 28.5% of which were less than 5 mm in diameter. Successful results were seen in 131 cases (91%). Successful results were significantly higher in males (p = 0.011) and lower in simultaneous stones in the middle calyx and lower calyx (p = 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

According to the results of this study, it can be inferred that ESWL success rate was above 90% in the treatment of kidney and ureteral stones in children in such a way that with an ESWL session in patients who have been properly selected for this procedure, a success rate of about 62.5% will be available to remove any residual fragments, and nearly 28.5% have residual fragments with a diameter of smaller than 5 mm, which is basically hopeful for a high urinary passage. The present study shows that type and stone location are the factors contributing to the successful ESWL and shows the female gender and the presence of stone in the lower and middle calyx are the risk factors for the lower ESWL success rate.

A survey on Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) by Iranian Urological Association

PURPOSE

The purpose of Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) is to offer a universal language to describe medical services. The elaborate systems designed by high-income countries are not fully applicable in ones with limited resources. Therefore, in the current study we aimed to ask urologists' opinion about deploying relative value units in valuation of medical services in Islamic republic of Iran.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A group of appointed urologists first selected 15 urological surgeries as exemplar urological procedures. Next, urologists around the country were asked to fill out an online questionnaire comparing these procedures with standard one (varicocelectomy). Then, mean scores of four categories (Difficulty, duration, adverse events and legal issues) were determined separately for each of the 15 procedures. Subsequently, mean score for each surgery was measured using the calculated mean scores of the four aforementioned categories.

RESULTS

273 urologists completed an online questionnaire. All of the calculated codes were higher compared to the current codes. Urethroplasty showed the least increment with 25.22 equivalent to 51.69% while extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy showed the most increment of 63.59 equivalent to 114.37%.

CONCLUSION

 Although CPT is an important tool in valuation of medical services, making modifications to it, especially in low-to-middle-income countries seems necessary. In this survey, we aimed to evaluate current surgical codes for urological procedures based on urologists' opinion. All of the calculated codes were higher compared with current codes. This, indicated the necessity of making changes in relative value units of urological procedures.