A new approach in ureteral access sheath locating in retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) by endovisional technique

Objective: To compare the results of patients who underwent retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) using endovisional technique for ureteral sheat locating with control group in which endovisional technique was not applied. Material and Methods: Of the 41 patients who underwent RIRS treatment for kidney stone, between March 2014- August 2015, 19 patients treated with endovisional technique formed the study group and remaining 22 patients formed the control group. Patients were evaluated for age and gender, baseline and post procedural creatinine level, duration of operation, fluoroscopy and hospitalization time, size and localization of the stone, presence of multiple stones, previous shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) procedure, double J catheter requirement, complication rate, residual stone rate and absence of stone ratio. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between age, gender, location of the stone, previous SWL procedure, presence of multiple stones, baseline and postprocedural creatinine level, absence of stone ratio, double J catheter requirement and hospitalization duration between the groups. The duration of operation and fluoroscopy of the patients were significantly shorter than the control group (p = 0.036 and p < 0.001, respectively). The complication rates of the endovisional technique group was significantly lower than that of the control group (p = 0.032). Conclusion: Endovisional technique is considered to be an appropriate and useful technique in order to locate the sheath safely in patients who has difficulty in ureteral access sheath locating and to decrease the duration of operation and fluoroscopy.