title: The comparison of standard and tubeless percutaneous nephrolithotomy procedures.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare totally tubeless and standard percutaneous nephrolitotomy procedures on many parameters.
  
  
  METHODS
  Percutaneous nephrolitotomy was performed on 195 patients between June 2009 and May 2012. The data of those patients were evaluated retrospectively. Totally tubeless cases were enrolled to Group 1, and Group 2 consisted of non-tubeless cases (re-entry or Foley catheter).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Group 1 included 85 cases and group 2 a total of 110 patients. Paper tracing values for the kidney stones were 321.25 ± 102.4 mm(2) and 324.10 ± 169.5 mm(2) respectively. Mean fluoroscopy time was 4.9 ± 1.9 min and 5.08 ± 2.7 min, mean operation time was 78.8 ± 27.9 min and 81.9 ± 28.77 min and mean decrease in hematocrit was 2.6 ± 1.6 and 3.74 ± 1.9 respectively. All these comparisons were statistically significant. Length of hospitalization was 1.6 ± 1.1 and 3.5 ± 1.5 days for Groups 1 and 2 respectively. Mean superficial pain score was 5.8 ± 1.6 and 6.7 ± 1.2 respectively for both groups after 1 hour. At 6 hours, the scores changed to 3.87 ± 1.22 and 4.84 ± 1.3 respectively. The analgesic dose was 1.00 ± 0.7 and 1.53 ± 0.6 for the groups respectively at 6 hours. All the statistical differences were significant for these three parameters.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We believe that, because of their post operative patient comfort and decreased length of hospital stay, totally tubeless procedures should be considered as an alternative to standard percutaneous nephrolitotomy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Ministry of Health, Yenimahalle State Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nalbant
authors.forename: Ufuk
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ozturk
authors.forename: Nevzat Can
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Sener
authors.forename: Onur
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dede
authors.forename: Ahmet Murat
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bayraktar
authors.forename: M Abdurrahim
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Imamoglu
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007669:Kidney Calculi / Q000601:surgery*; D007902:Length of Stay; D009403:Nephrostomy, Percutaneous / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D061646:Operative Time; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010149:Postoperative Pain; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014546:Urinary Catheterization