Experience of Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy / 대한비뇨기과학회지

ABSTRACT

Sixteen patients with renal and pelvis stones were treated by eighteen percutaneous nephrolithotomy(PNL) from December, 1986 to March, 1988 in Chonbuk National University Hospital. We discussed our experience with regard to the failures and complications of PNL. With accumulation of experiences, operation efficiencies were increased from 62.6 per cent early in this series to 75.0 per cent in the recent cases. The most common cause of failure was inability to find stone because of bleeding. No patient required nephrectomy, but five patients underwent open surgery for stone removal because of unsuccessful PNL(four in kidney, one in pelvis). Major complications occurred in 7 patients ;hemorrhage in four cases, urine extravasation into the retroperitoneal cavity, colon perforation, and remnant stone in a case respectively. We concluded that percutaneous nephrolithotomy appears to be a preferable procedure to open stone surgery and a useful alternative to ESWL.