Management of stone disease in pregnancy poses a challenge for all healthcare professionals involved in their care. During pregnancy, there is an increase in the incidence of urolithiasis. Major technological and procedural advances have been seen in the last decade for endoscopic management of urolithiasis. The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive workup of available literature on use of ureteroscopy for stone treatment during pregnancy.
We identified 268 articles on screening, of which 28 were included in the final review. Overall adverse event rates were low, with no severe complications reported in the included studies. On multivariate analysis, the only significant correlation was an inverse relationship between calculated caseload and adverse obstetric events. No further correlation could be found between caseload, operation technique and adverse event rates. Data quality was low among the included studies.
While ureteroscopy is a relatively safe and effective option for active stone treatment during pregnancy, they should be performed in experienced endourology centres in conjunction with obstetric teams.
Current opinion in urology. 2023 Sep 20 [Epub ahead of print]
Sebastian Graf, Bhaskar K Somani
Department of Urology and Andrology, Kepler University Hospital, Linz, Austria., Department of Urology, University Hospital Southampton, Southampton, UK.