Facilitated ureteroscopy using DJ stent implantation in ureterolithiasis: A retrospective study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of preoperative double J (DJ) stent insertion on outcomes of retrograde semi-rigid ureteroscopy (URS) in patients with upper small and medium sized ureteral stones. METHODS: Between April 2018 and September 2019, we retrospectively reviewed the medical register of Hillel Yaffe tertiary reference Centre (HYMC) for patients who had undergone retrograde semi-rigid URS for urolithiasis. Patients were separated into two groups depending on whether they accepted the DJ stent placement before URS (Group A) or not (Group B). Operating time, stone clearance rate, number of ‘rescue’ DJ stents, duration of ‘rescue’ stents, complication rate and requirement for repeat URS were compared between groups. RESULTS: 318 procedures undertaken in 290 patients were included (Group A, 83 procedures in 80 patiants; Group B, 235 procedures in 210 patients). By comparison with the non-stented group, patients in the preoperative DJ stented group had a higher stone clearance rate, lower complication rate, less need for postoperative ‘rescue’ DJ stent, lower duration of ‘rescue’ stent and lower re-operative URS requirement, including application of a flexible URS. CONCLUSION: Facilitated semi-rigid URS with upstream DJ stenting for small and medium size ureteral stones has favourable periprocedural outcomes compared with primary URS.