title: Factors affecting the fluoroscopic screening time during percutaneous nephrolithotomy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL) is established in urology practice with routine use of fluoroscopic guidance. Herein, we retrospectively evaluated the potential factors affecting the fluoroscopic screening time (FST) during PNL.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 282 patients with documented FST in detail during PNL performed by one surgeon were enrolled in this study. In all cases, PNL was performed on patients in prone position under C-armed fluoroscopy unit. The correlation between the FST and patient and also stone factors, including body mass index (BMI), previous open renal surgery, characteristics and size of the stone, and presence of hydronephrosis, as well as procedural factors such as percutaneous access number and location and operation time were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the patients was 43 +/- 14.7 (range: 18-67) years. The mean operation time was 78.9 +/- 22.0 (range: 45-150) minutes, and the mean FST was 10.19 +/- 6.3 (range: 3-50) minutes. The mean stone size was 8.46 +/- 5.11 cm(2) (range: 2-30). The FST was significantly prolonged in patients with increased stone burden (p = 0.001) and necessitating multiple accesses procedures (p = 0.007). However, BMI of the patient, stone configuration, degree of hydronephrosis, history of open renal surgery, and access location did not have an impact on FST (p > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In patients with large stones necessitating multiple accesses, FST is significantly prolonged; therefore, they have to be managed by experienced surgeons to diminish the radiation exposure. However, BMI, stone configuration, presence of hydronephrosis, history of open renal surgery, and access location did not have effect on FST in our study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Haseki Teaching and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Abdulkadir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tepeler
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Binbay
authors.forename: Emrah
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yuruk
authors.forename: Erhan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sari
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaba
authors.forename: Ahmet Yaser
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Muslumanoglu
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tefekli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005471:Fluoroscopy; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009403:Nephrostomy, Percutaneous / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult