A new technique for treating forgotten indwelling ureteral stents: silk loop assisted ureterorenoscopic lithotripsy.
OBJECTIVE
Treating forgotten indwelling ureteral stents is difficult because forgotten stents become encrusted and fragmented. Therefore, we developed a silk loop with which to loop the lower end of a forgotten ureteral stent during ureterorenoscopy to supply a counterforce, which fixed the stent while separating encrusted stones from the forgotten stent. We evaluated the success of the silk loop method.


METHODS
Nine patients were enrolled in this study from 1997 to 2003. Each patient had a forgotten ureteral stent with renal stones on the tip of the proximal end. All consented to the procedure of silk loop assisted ureterorenoscopic lithotripsy (URSL) with a Lithoclast (Microvasive, Natick, Massachusetts) lithotriptor.


RESULTS
We successfully removed the forgotten indwelling stent from all 9 patients with the silk loop assisted URSL method.


CONCLUSIONS
Silk loop assisted URSL makes the removal of forgotten stents easier. While percutaneous nephrostolithotomy and open surgery produce successful results, the silk loop method is less invasive and expensive, and it minimizes hospital recovery time.
Yeh
Chin-Chung
CC
Department of Urology, Chima Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung City, Taiwan, Republic of China. dryeh@www.cmuh.org.tw
Chen
Chieh-Hsiao
CH
Lin
Chia-Ho
CH
Chang
Chao-Hsiang
CH
Wu
Hsi-Chin
HC
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D020878:Device Removal / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney; D008096:Lithotripsy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015607:Stents; D013997:Time Factors; D014513:Ureter; D020709:Ureteroscopes; D018666:Ureteroscopy