Impact of COVID-19 on endourology surgical practice in Saudi Arabia: A national multicenter study.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the impact of COVID-19 on endourology surgical practice in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A retrospective study of seven tertiary hospitals from January 2019 to April 2019, and from January 2020 to April 2020 was performed. Records of urology outpatient department (OPD) visits and endourology procedures in the first third of 2020 were analyzed and compared with those in the first third of 2019, as well as, during the full curfew time, i.e. April 2020 versus April 2019. RESULTS: Number of OPD visits in the first third of 2020 and 2019 were 19 499 and 26 594, respectively (p<0.001). Number of OPD visits in April 2020 was 1512, with a 78.6% decrease compared to that in April 2019, and among them 1373 (90.8%) were teleclinics. Number of elective procedures in the first third of 2020 has decreased by 34.3% (from 3025 to 1988) compared to that in the first third of 2019 (p<0.001). There were 120 elective procedures in April 2020, 84.1% lower than that in April 2019. Percutaneous nephrolithotomy, shockwave lithotripsy, and transurethral resection of prostate procedures declined by 94.2%, 98.5%, and 93.8%, respectively. Most procedures were performed as day surgery (85.0%). Number of emergency procedures in 2020 have fallen by 9.3% compared to 2019 (p=0.286). Urolithiasis was the commonest pathology (52.6%) presented to the emergency room (52.6%). CONCLUSION: During COVID-19 pandemic, urology services slashed by >75%, including OPD visits and elective endourology procedures. Most hospitals have changed their strategic preventive measures by increasing the rate of teleclinics and day surgeries.

Open Partial Cystectomy of Intramural Bladder Leiomyoma With Unfavorable Position: A Rare Case Report.

Benign tumor of the bladder (Leiomyoma) is a rare condition representing less than 0.5% of all bladder tumors. A 50-year-old female presented with asymptomatic hematuria for three months. Abdomen and pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a large intraluminal mass originating from the submucosal layer of the left anterolateral wall of the urinary bladder. An ultrasound-guided biopsy was performed, and a histopathological examination showed a spindle cell tumor. Cystoscopy revealed a massive indentation in the left posterolateral site of the urinary bladder extending to the bladder's dome. The patient underwent open partial cystectomy. At the follow-up, the patient was evaluated, and there was no hematuria or other complaints. Open partial cystectomy is the treatment of choice in an intramural tumor with an unfavorable position and difficulty in recognition.

Trends of percutaneous nephrolithotomy in Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to present the current practice patterns on percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) in Saudi Arabia and to compare it with the international patterns and to observe the adherence to the guidelines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A survey consisting of 28 questions was sent to urologists working in Saudi Arabia using a Google Forms questionnaire. The questioner covered most aspects of performing PCNL starting from preparing the patient till discharging him. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-two replied to the survey. Almost 70.2% performed PCNL and 59.1% of them learned PCNL during residency. The access was obtained by the urologists in 80.3% from the participants, 68.2% of them uses fluoroscopic guidance for the puncture. The majority (80.3%) perform PCNL in the prone position. Nearly 69.7% use the balloon dilators and 16.7% use the Amplatz dilators. For kidney drainage, 60.6% place a nephrostomy tube and a double-J stent (DJ stent) together and 4.5% perform tubeless PCNL (DJ stent only). About 45.5% stated that the introduction of flexible ureteroscopy decreased the rate of doing PCNL for >20%. CONCLUSIONS: Data obtained from a group of urologists in Saudi Arabia showed that the majority of urologists practicing in Saudi Arabia perform PCNL. They usually learn PCNL during residency. We observe that the majority of urologists attach to the original patterns in PCNL, i.e., they predominantly prefer the prone position and use fluoroscopy to gain the PCNL access. Furthermore, the data showed that new trends in PCNL did not gain a lot of momentum as few practices miniaturized PCNL and tubeless PCNL. The majority use balloon dilators and combined ultrasonic/pneumatic lithotripters. The complication rate encountered by the participants is concomitance with the published international figures. The introduction of flexible ureteroscopy highly decreased the rate of doing PCNL for most urologists.