When a patient has a kidney stone, the surgery to remove it can be complicated by difficult access to the stone. Doctors often use a special tool called a FANS-UAS to help during the procedure. This study looked at how the timing of a pre-placed stent—a small tube used to keep the path open—affected the success of placing that tool.
Researchers tracked 221 patients undergoing surgery. They compared three groups: those with no pre-stenting, those with a stent for 2 to 4 weeks, and those with a stent for 4 to 6 weeks. The results showed that patients with a pre-placed stent had a much higher success rate for placing the FANS-UAS tool. Specifically, success jumped from 80% in the no-stent group to over 93% in the groups that had a stent for at least two weeks.
While the timing between 2 and 6 weeks did not show a major difference in success, the presence of a stent did make the surgery faster by shortening the time needed to reach the stone. Importantly, the study found that the amount of pre-stenting did not increase the risk of serious complications. This suggests that pre-stenting is a reliable way to help surgeons navigate the anatomy more effectively during kidney stone removal.
