Age-related prevalence of diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and anticoagulation therapy use in a urolithiasis population and their effect on outcomes: the Clinical Research Office of the Endourological Society Ureteroscopy Global Study.

PURPOSE: This study examined the prevalence of risk factors for urological stone surgery and their possible influence on outcome and complications following ureteroscopy (URS). METHODS: The Clinical Research Office of the Endourological Society Ureteroscopy Global Study collected prospective data on consecutive patients with urinary stones treated with URS at centers around the world for 1 year. The prevalence of common comorbidities and anticoagulation therapy and their relationship with complications and age were examined. RESULTS: Of 11,719 patients, 2,989 patients (25.8%) had cardiovascular disease, including 22.6% with hypertension, and 1,266 patients (10.9%) had diabetes mellitus. Approximately six percent of patients were receiving oral anticoagulation therapy, including aspirin (3.7%) and clopidogrel (0.8%). The prevalence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus and the proportion of patients receiving anticoagulant medication and/or antidiabetes treatment increased with age. Elderly were more likely to develop a postoperative complication when they had diabetes, a cardiovascular disease or received anticoagulation therapy. Post-operative bleeding was higher in patients receiving anticoagulants than those not receiving them (1.1 vs. 0.4%; p < 0.01). Patients with risk factors for stone formation had more complications than those without (4.9 vs. 3.0%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study confirming in a global population that URS can effectively and safely be performed in a population with high comorbidity. The risk of a complication was highest among elderly patients presenting with comorbidities.

Possible complications of ureteroscopy in modern endourological era: two-point or "scabbard" avulsion.

Indication has led ureteroscopy to be a worldwide technique, with the expected appearance of multiple types of complications. Severe complications are possible including ureteral perforation or avulsion. Ureteral avulsion has been described as an upper urinary tract injury related to the action of blunt trauma, especially from traffic accidents, being the mechanism of injury, the result of an acute deceleration/acceleration movement. With the advent of endourology, that term is also applied to the extensive degloving injury resulting from a mechanism of stretching of the ureter that eventually breaks at the most weakened site, or ureteral avulsion is referred to as a discontinuation of the full thickness of the ureter. The paper presents a case report and literature review of the two-point or "scabbard" avulsion. The loss of long segment of the upper ureter, when end-to-end anastomosis is not technically feasible, presents a challenge to the urological surgeon. In the era of small calibre ureteroscopes these complications, due to growing incidence of renal stones will become more and more actual. Our message to other urologists is to know such a complication, to know the ways of treatment, and to analyse ureteroscopic signs, when to stop or pay attention.