A RANDOMISED CLINICAL TRIAL COMPARING OUTCOME OF STENTED VERSUS NON-STENTED URSL

Purpose: Ureteroscopic lithotripsy (URSL) is procedure of choice for managing ureteric calculi. However placing ureteric stent after every URSL is controversial. Routine stenting exposes patient to more stent related symptoms, encrustation and complication of forgotten stent. Through this study our aim is to examine outcome of stented URSL versus non stented URSL. Materials And Methods: This study was prospective randomised controlled trail done at tertiary care hospital of eastern India. It was hospital based interventional study. After assessing 76 patients who underwent URSL, subjects were randomised into two groups: non-stented URSL (n=38) and stented URSL (n=38). The primary outcome assessed were lower urinary tract symptoms like urgency and dysuria, ank pain, haematuria, urinary tract infection, stone free rate, need of analgesic and secondary outcome assessed were mean operative time, rehospitalisation rate and duration of hospital stay. Results: Lower urinary tract symptoms urgency and dysuria were similar in both groups in immediate postoperative period , more in stented URSL group after post-operative day 7 and persisted till stent removal (p=0.004). Flank pain and need of analgesics were more in stented URSL group (p0.000 for both). Stone free rates were same in both groups. No signicant difference in hospital stay (p=0.563) and urinary tract infection in between two groups. Conclusion: Ureteric stent can safely be omitted without affecting stone free rate and also patients experience less stent related symptom.