Comparison of extracorporeal shock waves and ureterorenoscopy in the treatment of ureteral calculi

Purpose: Ureteral stones that are found in 20% of all urinary stones, are the most common cause of renal colic pains. In stone diseases, with the improvement in minimally invasive and non-invasive treatment modalities in the last 20 years, the treatment has become much easier.In parallel with these developments, patients are aimed at least morbidity and full stone-free rate with the lowest cost. The aim of this study is to compare URS and ESWL, which are minimally invasive and non-invasive treatment methods, in terms of complete stone-free rates, complication rates, length of stay in hospital and cost Material and methods: A total of 886 patients, 184 patients in the ESWL group and 182 patients in URS group, were selected randomly to participate in the study between January 2012 and January 2016 in the Ege University Hospital of Medicine, in which ESWL or URS methods were used for ureteral stones and retrospective data were available. The age, sex, stone size, stone side and the complications of the patients during and after the procedure, length of stay in the hospital, use and removal times of the double j stent, stone-free rates, secondary treatment requirements and costs were recorded for all patients. Statistical analyzes were performed using the SPSS for Windows version 22.0 package program. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between groups in terms of age, gender and party (p> 0,05).There was no significant difference in treatment success according to the average of all stone sizes (p> 0,05). There was statistically significant difference in treatment success (<10mm / 10mm) according to stone size (p <0,05). In treatment comparison according to stone size and localization among the groups, although there was a significant difference in upper ureteral stones <10 mm, no significant difference was found in the other groups (p <0,05). Significant complications were not observed in either group. There was a significant difference between the groups in terms of cost (p <0,05) Conclusion: ESWL and URS are similar effective treatment modalities in terms of treatment success in all ureteral stones. ESWL may be the first choice treatment method because of the upper ureteral stones which are <10mm have high stone-free rate and low cost. Key words; üreteral calculi; ureterorenoskopy, extracorporeal shock wave litotripsy