Although paediatric ureteroscopy is widely performed, there is still a lack of data and outcomes in early childhood. In this two-centre study, we compared the outcomes of ureteroscopy for stone disease management in early and late childhood and provide outcomes for the same.
Data was retrospectively collected on consecutive patients from two tertiary paediatric endo-urology European centres over a 15-year period (2006-2021). Patients were split into two groups, namely, early childhood (age ⩽ 9 years) and late childhood (age 9 to ⩽16 years). Outcomes including stone-free rate (SFR) and complications were compared between these two groups.
A total of 148 patients underwent 184 procedures (1.2 procedure/patient) during the study period (66 in early childhood and 82 in late childhood). The mean age in early and late childhood groups were 5.6 and 13.3 years, and a male: female ratio of 1.6:1 and 1.1:1, respectively. The SFR and complications in early and late childhood groups were 87.8% and 90.2% (p = 0.64) and 5.7% and 4.1%, respectively.
Paediatric ureteroscopy and laser stone fragmentation achieves good results in both early and late childhood with comparable SFRs, although the complications and need for second procedure were marginally higher in the early childhood group. Our study would set up a new benchmark for patient counselling in future, and perhaps this needs to be reflected in the paediatric urolithiasis guidelines.
Therapeutic advances in urology. 2022 Dec 20*** epublish ***
Mriganka Sinha, Amelia Pietropaolo, Yesica Quiroz Madarriaga, Erika Llorens de Knecht, Anna Bujons Tur, Stephen Griffin, Bhaskar K Somani
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK., Urology Department, Fundació Puigvert, Barcelona, Spain., Pediatric Urology Unit, Urology Department, Fundació Puigvert, Barcelona, Spain., Southampton Children's Hospital NHS Trust, Southampton, UK., University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK.